(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-08 17:18

"Tap water at my home has stopped flowing for one month and I have to fetch water from my neighbor on the first floor every evening," said Wei Weiguo, a resident in Dongxiang county of east China's Jiangxi Province.

Wei lives on the fourth floor of a residential building of the county seat, where water has become a top concern for 100,000 local residents due to a severe drought plaguing the area.

Residents in Dongxiang are supplied with water only between 7 am to 8 am, 11:30 am to 12:30 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm every day. Those who live on the fourth floor or higher have had to use buckets to fetch water from the first floor for more than 30 days.

One of the only two reservoirs on which the county residents rely has stopped supplying water. One water factory for the county seat has stopped operation.

"The Foling reservoir has only 400,000 cubic meters of water left, less than one tenth of its normal storage volume," said Li Xiangrong, deputy general manger of Dongxiang County Tap Water Company. "The water quality also becomes so bad that it is no longer usable."

The other one, Xingfu reservoir,  now has 3.8 million cubic meters of water for use, only 15 percent of its normal storage.

"The water level of Xingfu reservoir is currently three meters below the water-taking pipes," said Li. "We must use pumps to get water from it."

Navigation was almost at a standstill in all lakes and rivers inside Jiangxi, the provincial navigation bureau said.

The water surface of Poyang Lake in Jiangxi, the country's largest freshwater lake, has shrunk to less than 50 square km from 3,000 square km in flood season, the Jiangxi Hydrological Bureau said.

The lake's water level at the Xingzi hydrological station was 7.5 meters on Friday, close to the historic low of 7.11 meters.

Across Jiangxi, about 300,000 urban residents and 100,000 rural people are facing severe water shortages, according to the provincial Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

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