Relentless rainstorms and ensuing floods in two southern Chinese provinces have left at least 29 people dead, forced the evacuation of 100,000 and affected hundreds of thousands of others, according to local government sources.

In the past three days, seven residents of Meizhou City, Guangdong, were killed in landslides with 270,000 others affected by floods, the largest in a decade, the provincial water conservancy bureau said Saturday.

More than 50,000 people were evacuated from flood-hit areas.

At least 784 houses collapsed, nearly 15,000 hectares of cropland and infrastructure facilities, including dikes and roads, were damaged, incurring 270 million yuan (33.75 million U.S. dollars) in economic losses.

Five heavy rainstorms, bringing a 20 percent higher rainfall than the same period last year, will continue to afflict the province in June, the bureau has warned.

The provincial meteorological bureau issued a storm and flood warning on Saturday, highlighting the need for safety precautions at seasonal dragon-boat races to ensure people's safety.

In the neighboring province of Fujian, continuous heavy rains since May 30 have claimed the lives of 22 people and destroyed 19,000 homes, forcing the evacuation of more than 50,000 people.

Floods are a seasonal hazard in southern China at this time of the year, causing casualties and enormous damage despite government efforts at flood mitigation.

A senior official with the state flood-control authority has said that 59 had been killed and 11 people were missing nationwide in floods by the end of May.

More than 19 million people were affected by the weather, said E Jingping, secretary-general of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters and vice-minister of water resources.

About 1 million hectares of farmland were flooded and 71,000 houses have been destroyed, causing direct economic losses of over13 billion yuan (1.64 billion U.S. dollars), said the official.

Heavy rains are expected to worsen the situation when they hit the vast regions south of the Yangtze River in 10 days, bringing up to 150 mm of rain in some areas, according to a weather forecast by China Meteorological Bureau on Friday.

Meteorologists forecast many regions in China will enter a flood season this month, alerting local flood-control departments against possible hillside torrents, landslides and other weather-related dangers.

The floods came after Typhoon Chanchu, the strongest tropical storm ever recorded in the month of May, battered southern coastal regions last month, leaving 11 dead and causing huge economic losses.

Meanwhile, northern China continues to suffer a long-term drought, which has resulted in a shortage of drinking water for 9.49 million people.

The drought has affected 12.1 million hectares of farmland mainly in northern and northeastern areas. The drinking water shortage has also affected 8.7 million livestock.

In late April when the drought was most serious, it threatened supplies of drinking water to more than 14 million Chinese and affected 16.3 million hectares of farmland. It eased in mid-May after rain fell across China, except in northern and northeastern areas.

The drought, accompanied by strong winds and high temperatures, has rapidly spread across most of the north and incurred greater losses than usual, said E Jingping.

Northeast China, which has been plagued by forest fires over the last month, could see 10 days of moderate but unbalanced rainfall, which is expected to temporarily ease the drought.

The anticipated rains may not greatly alleviate fire risks lingering in the region, where three major blazes have just been extinguished thanks to 10 days of efforts by more than 33,000 police, firefighters and local residents.

China's leadership has praised the firefighters, who have battled the fires in extremely unfavorable weather conditions.

"China still faces an arduous task in drought relief and flood control," said E Jingping, adding that the abnormal climate marked by the coexistence of floods and drought would continue in the short-term.

The official made the remarks at an event in Beijing on Thursday to distribute educational materials on flood-control knowledge to the public.

The flood-control campaign required joint efforts from the government and the public as the people could actively help to reduce casualties and damages, he said.

The increasingly extreme weather is challenging Chinese meteorologists and the forecasting system, forcing them to improve the accuracy based on more "complicated" and integrated information on the global climate, oceans, atmosphere and continents, said Ding Yihui, a leading meteorologist and academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Editor: Yan