Continuous drought has forced villagers in Sannjia Village, Honghe, Yunnan Province to buy drinking water at a water source point 10 kilometers away. (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency) So far, the severe drought has caused drinking water difficulties for 3.19 million people and 1.58 million heads of large livestock in Yunnan Province to varying degrees, with some urban areas experiencing water supply tensions and some enterprises and mines already in a state of shutdown or semi-shutdown. The direct economic losses due to the drought in the entire province have reached around 10 billion yuan. With the development of the drought and the consumption of existing stored water, the situation of drought resistance and water supply security in the entire province could become even more severe before the rainy season arrives. This was learned during the teleconference held in Kunming on the 27th regarding forest fire prevention and drought relief efforts in Yunnan Province. Currently, 112 meteorological stations across the province are experiencing varying degrees of meteorological drought, with 12 stations under extreme drought conditions and 57 stations under severe drought. Except for remote areas in northwest, northeast, and southeast Yunnan, meteorological drought has occurred in all other regions within the province, with the drought developing in an accelerating and worsening trend. Vice Governor of Yunnan Province, Kong Chuzhu, said at the meeting that affected by three consecutive years of drought and insufficient rainfall, currently 273 medium and small rivers in the entire province have ceased to flow and 413 small reservoirs have dried up, leaving the total water storage in reservoirs and ponds at only 4.3 billion cubic meters. The National Disaster Reduction Commission and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have promptly initiated a national level IV disaster relief emergency response, while relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Agriculture have dispatched multiple working groups to Yunnan to inspect and guide drought relief efforts. Since last autumn, the central government has allocated 4.24 billion yuan to support Yunnan's drought relief efforts, and recently, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration has allocated 1.5 billion yuan in drought relief funds for drought-resistant seedling cultivation in Yunnan's tobacco leaf production.