Farmers living near a water reservoir in China's eastern Shandong province were struggling on Wednesday (June 19) with scorching heat that has baked the provincial capital Jinan for over a month. - REUTERS
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00:00Selling his produce along a street in Jinan in eastern China, 56-year-old farmer Li Weidong
00:07says the city is as hot as a stove.
00:13The capital of Shandong province has been struggling with scorching heat for over a
00:18month.
00:19On Wednesday, authorities in the province declared an orange heat alert.
00:24A nearby reservoir, though not completely dried up, is showing signs of distress.
00:30Li says the water used to be much closer to the road.
00:34When it was not dried up, the water was just a couple of meters away from the road.
00:40Now it's shrunk, now it's dried up.
00:42The irrigation for farmland and drinking water supply for the city both depend on it.
00:48This 70-year-old farmer in Jinan says she planted apples, peaches and other crops during
00:54this summer's planting season.
00:56She estimates 90 percent of those crops are now damaged.
01:01Even with the drought in the 1960s, it wasn't as dry as it is this year, she says.
01:06Back then, it still rained once or twice in the spring, but this year, it hasn't rained
01:11even once.
01:13In some parts of the wheat-growing provinces of Hebei, Henan and Shandong, temperatures
01:18could reach outwards of 111 degrees Fahrenheit, potentially breaking historical records for
01:24the month of June, Chinese state media CCTV said.