(Adds floods in Sichuan in paragraph 9) BEIJING, June 19 (Reuters) - China's northeast province of Liaoning, one of the country's leading corn-producing areas, has been hit by its worst drought in 30 years, limiting drinking water supplies for more than 1 million people, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. Local government has dispatched more than 500,000 people to dig wells and transport water to the worst-hit areas in the northwest and south, Xinhua said. High temperatures and inadequate rainfall this month have caused a water shortage affecting 1.27 million people and 473,800 animals, the report said, citing officials in the provincial flood prevention and drought control headquarters. About 1.4 million hectares of crops, mainly corn and rice paddy, have also been damaged, it said. In March, the province suffered its heaviest snowstorm in half a century, but persistent high temperatures in late spring and early summer have reduced soil moisture, it said. Heilongjiang, another major corn area north of Liaoning, was also hit by dry weather, and officials were concerned the situation could worsen, according to the report. Agriculture Minister Sun Zhengcai warned on Monday that poor weather conditions could reduce the country's overall grain output for the full year despite a bigger wheat harvest. He pointed to drought in corn-growing areas in the north, and flooding in rice areas in the south. Xinhua added that flash floods and landslides after heavy rain in the southwestern province of Sichuan had killed 15 people and left two missing. (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard)
