A total of 7.9 million people are without adequate drinking water in the municipality of Chongqing, and no alleviation is in sight as meteorologists expect no rain for a week, the China Daily reported.

The municipality, which has 31 million inhabitants if surrounding towns and countryside are included, is now seeing temperatures of 40 degrees Centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit), the China Daily reported.

The mercury has previously reached highs of 44.5 degrees C this summer, making it is the hottest period since records began, the China Meteorological Administration was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Reservoirs supplying the city with water are only one-third full, the paper said.

The situation has prompted city officials to again issue a "heat wave warning" after it was suspended a week ago.

They have undertaken emergency measures such as postponing the start of the new school term from Friday until Tuesday next week, according to the paper.

They have also reduced the power supply to government offices between 7 pm and 7 am to lessen the burden on the city's network, which is exhausted by the increased use of air-conditioners, the paper said.

State media reported earlier this month that China's worst drought in 50 years had left more than 18 million people in 15 provinces and regions short of drinking water.

The drought has so far affected 11.1 million hectares (27.5 million acres) of cropland, Xinhua said, citing the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters.

The figure is roughly equal to nine percent of China's total farmland, given in earlier reports at 122 million hectares.

Drought relief departments in the southwestern region mobilized the local population to dig more wells, while officials sprayed the clouds with chemicals to generate artificial rain, Xinhua said.

In Sichuan province, just west of Chongqing, the government also called on drought-afflicted residents to plant alternative crops such as potatoes to help make up for the loss of more traditional crops.

Food security for China's 1.3 billion people is a major source of concern for the government, even though the country managed to boost its grain production by 3.1 percent to 484 million tonnes in 2005.

Production last year was 14.55 million tonnes more than in 2004, the first year that the grain harvest increased after five years of falling yields.

State media reported that the drought has also affected the Yangtze River, threatening navigation along a waterway of vital importance to many interior provinces.

"The level is the second lowest since hydrologic records for this section of the river began in 1865," one official in the central Chinese city of Hankou told Xinhua news agency last week.

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