One official with the municipal hydrological bureau pointed a finger to a glut of power generating facilities that store water in Yangtze's upper reaches. "But it won't be easy to ask them to discharge water and solve the supply bottleneck," said Guan Xuewen, deputy head of the bureau.

According to Guan, there are several hundred power stations in the upper reaches and the small ones do not even report to the flood prevention and drought relief authorities for water storage and discharging.

"On the other hand, reservoirs are under the jurisdiction of the water resources authorities and power stations come under the power administration so there is not one watchdog to guarantee the rational allocation of water resources," he said.

The declining water level has played havoc with navigation and a cargo ship carrying 1,400 tons of timber was stranded on Sunday close to Chongqing's Xingang port. The salvage operation lasted five hours.

On Monday, the municipal maritime bureau suspended navigation in some areas between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. for surveying and dredging.

"Dwindling water reserves are also threatening the Yangtze ecology," said Wu Dengming, an environmentalist. "It's harder for fish to survive as the reduced water flow is affecting the river's capacity to dilute pollutants."

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