Water levels on two of south China's major rivers, the Gan and Xiang, have dropped to historic lows due to a sharp decrease in rainfall since the beginning of October.

Large portions of Jiangxi and Hunan provinces, where seasonal rainfall has dropped by as much as 90 percent, are suffering from serious drought. The situation is particularly severe in Hunan, the country's largest rice-growing province, as rice needs a constant supply of water to grow.

Water has been diverted from reservoirs and pumps have been installed to ensure irrigation of fields and drinking water supplies to populations in the region's biggest cities, authorities say.

China's longest river, the Yangtze, and the Pearl River have also seen their water levels drop, Xinhua writes.

Floods and droughts are seasonal nuisances in China, and their increased frequency and severity is being partly blamed on climate change.

This summer, long periods of high temperatures and drought damaged as much as a third of farmland and left millions of people short of drinking water in southern China.

Summer floods also killed more than 1,100 Chinese this year.

Pollution is strongly linked with causing global warming and a rise in extreme weather phenomena, which translate into substantial economic losses.

This week, the World Bank said air and water pollution are costing China around 67 billion euros a year, or about 5.8 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The economic cost of air pollution alone equates to 3.8 percent of the GDP.

In addition to the enormous financial impact of rising pollution, the incidence of pollution related diseases is also on the rise, the report says.

Effective methods of cutting air pollution include replacing coal-burning stoves with other heating systems, boosting state investment in public transport and limiting the use of private cars, according to David Dollar, the World Bank country director for China and Mongolia.