Almost a quarter million people in south China's Guangdong Province face drinking water shortages as a severe autumn drought lingers, government authorities said.

As of Thursday, 249,000 people and 73,300 hectares of cropland in the province have been affected by the shortage, according to the Guangdong Provincial Hydraulics Bureau. The drought had dried up 133 reservoirs in the province, the bureau said.

Statistics from the bureau showed the province had received only 1,453 millimeters of rain from January through early December, down nearly 20 percent from normal years.

Declining water levels have become common around China, as the average rainfall in November hit its lowest level since 1989. All three major Chinese rivers -- the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Zhujiang -- are running low.