WUHAN, July 30 -- More than 570,000 people in central China's Hunan Province have been affected by drought resulting from heatwaves and lack of rainfall while some areas have difficulty getting drinking water, said local authorities.

As of 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the drought has affected a total of 571,800 people in the province and 42,600 people are in need of living assistance, among which 36,600 have difficulty accessing drinking water, according to the provincial emergency management department.

About 685,000 hectares of crops have been affected, of which 79,000 hectares have been demolished, and the direct economic losses are estimated to reach 320 million yuan (about 46.48 million U.S. dollars), the department said.

The local government has sent work teams to the affected areas to guide local relief work. Party committees and governments at all levels in the disaster-hit areas have actively allocated water resources to provide affected residents with emergency water supplies.