"The village well has dried up and even the dusty water at the bottom has been scooped up," said Gu Qixiu, a villager in Zhangguan town, Yubei District. "The townsfolk have been sending us water wagons and each family gets two buckets of water a day."

Gu said the arid cropland is unlikely to yield a cent this year. "Even sweet potatoes refuse to grow in the arid land."

"This is the worst drought to hit Chongqing in 50 years," said He Lingyun, a disaster relief official with the municipal government. "Two-thirds of the local rivers and lakes have dried up and more than 200 reservoirs are stagnant."

Local governments have mobilized 5.8 million people and allocated 140 million yuan (US$17.5 million) to help residents fight against drought by tapping ground water and improving water conservation facilities.

Water supply for more than 3.6 million people and three million livestock have so far been solved thanks to the drought-relief efforts.

Drinking water shortage has affected another 270,000 people in central Hunan Province since droughts hit the northwestern area of the province in June, where the temperature topped 40 degrees Celsius over the past days.

Growth of crops on over 333,000 hectares of farmland in 40 cities and counties across Hunan has been affected by the drought.

After a power cut led to equipment failure on Sunday, the water supply was shut down in Hunan's Huaihua City, leaving about 150,000 people -- or 40 percent of the local population -- thirsty for three days.

Public health authorities in Nanjing, capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, said that a 30-year old tourist died of heatstroke on Monday after emergency treatment failed.

The man, from northwest Qinghai Province, fell ill on the train and was rushed to a hospital when the train arrived in Nanjing.

With temperatures hovering around 36 degrees Celsius, despite occasional thundershowers, the city's meteorological department has warned citizens to take precautions against heatwave.

Other areas of western China that are being affected by the drought are Guizhou Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, while water supplies for Shanghai and other cities in the eastern region are declining.

The broiling weather and drought also strained power supplies in eastern and southern China.

A blackout was enforced in the eastern city of Hangzhou to protect its power transmission grid after temperatures topped 38 degrees Celsius.

Power use in the country has soared in recent summers as families, shopping malls and hotels, with newly acquired air conditioners, compete with factories for supplies.

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