A child plays on a dried-up riverbed on the outskirts of Zhengzhou, Henan province on February 5. REUTERS PREMIER Wen Jiabao told officials to give "top priority" to drought relief during his visit to Henan province, even though rain brought a slight bit of relief to parts of drought-hit areas over the weekend. The worst drought to hit China in half a century has affected the lives of people in eight provinces. The government has declared an emergency across the north, where 4.4 million people lack adequate drinking water and winter wheat crops are withering. Here’s some background information on the drought and what needs to be done. Q: What has caused this especially severe drought? A: Abnormal air movements around the globe kept warm ocean air currents from reaching northern parts of China. Without adequate warm, humid air, rain does not form, hence the drought. To make matters worse, excessive use of underground water in recent years in the northern provinces has drawn down the water table so less resources are available. Q: Since the drought did not form over a short period of time, why is it only now being covered in news reports? A: Droughts might be the most easily overlooked natural disaster. To begin with, they are cumulative. The water problem is a long-term one rather than some incident that suddenly occurs. Moreover, droughts do not carry clear warning signs like, say, a flood. Most important, though, is that droughts do not result in immediate, alarming death tolls, or property damage. So, droughts are not often at the top of an editor’s "in" box. Q: How will this drought affect our lives? A: As of last Friday, the drought had destroyed crops on about 10 million hectares of land. What does this mean? Well, obviously, that means a reduction in the amount of grain for the market. So, there have been fears of a price hike in grains. But it’s still too early to say what influence it will have on the price of wheat this year because that depends on total grain output. The fact that the drought has hung on means greater pressure on water use in urban areas. To ensure the well-being of residents, the State will have to put more limits on water usage by factories. It could mean a rise in industrial production costs. Q: What’s the solution and how long will it take? A: Some areas got a touch of rain and sleet over the weekend after clouds were "seeded" with thousands of rockets and cannon shells loaded with silver iodide pellets. In addition, more than 5 billion cubic meters of water have been diverted from the Yellow River. More water from the Yangtze and the Yellow rivers could be diverted to drought-hit areas. Irrigation covered 52.7 percent of the wheat land in drought-hit provinces by Saturday. But the drought could persist into March, with the dominant weather pattern across the north not expected to change in the near term.