JINAN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- East China's Shandong Province has diverted a total of 876 million cubic meters of water from the Yellow River from June 20 to July 2 to ease the persistent drought, said the water affairs bureau of the Yellow River in Shandong.

Shandong, a major grain-producing base of China, has received less precipitation and the rainfall has been unevenly distributed since the beginning of the year, which resulted in severe drought. To ease the drought, Shandong Provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters launched an emergency response on June 20.

Diverting water from the Yellow River for irrigation has efficiently eased the drought in some parts of the province so far. The drought-stricken area of crops decreased from 1.22 million hectares on June 26 to 870,000 hectares on June 30, according to the bureau.

Up to now, Shandong has mobilized 2.77 million people and used 615,000 sets of drought-fighting equipment to combat drought, and 4.07 million hectares of crops were irrigated.