CHONGQING -- Sizzling temperatures and the worst drought in 50 years will continue to ravage southwest China's Sichuan Province and Chongqing Municipality despite showers that started on Sunday and are forecast to hit most areas of western China in the next three days.

Parts of Chongqing's city proper bathed in light showers on Sunday evening and the temperature fell by at least five degrees Celsius, but local meteorologists said the rain did little to ease the drought across the municipality and the Sichuan Basin.

The central meteorological station also predicted that the drought would continue in most areas of the municipality.

While most parts of southwest China will see temperatures fall from last week's record high 44.5 degrees Celsius, the station forecasts that the mercury will still hover around 35 to 37 degrees in most parts of Chongqing and the Sichuan Basin. In the hottest areas, the high temperature may still hit 40.

A press release by the municipal flood control and drought relief headquarters on Sunday said the drought in Chongqing Municipality had reached its peak.

Drinking water shortages had hit 7.84 million people in 37 districts and counties in Chongqing and the drought has caused 3.75 billion yuan (US$470 million) in losses, it said.

Local governments had arranged 13,420 water wagons and dug nearly 30,000 new wells to provide water for 4.24 million people, said the press release.

"This is the worst drought I've ever experienced," said Nie Zhongchang, a 61-year-old peasant in Changli Village of Anju District in Suining, one of the worst-hit cities in Sichuan Province.

"All the paddies have dried up," he said as he pointed at the cracks in the terraced soil after two months without rain.

The villagers had been rationing every drop of fresh water from the one small bucket a day for each family from the water wagons. A basin of fresh water is used to wash rice and vegetable before it bathes the entire family and then feeds pigs and cattle.

Seventy-three-year-old Li Biquan and his wife toiled in the field under the scorching sun in Yujiaba Village, Wusheng County in Guang'an. "We can't believe this -- a half year of hard work has come to nothing. Our grain output will be down by 80 percent compared with last year."

The Sichuan provincial government said 112 of all the 181 counties and districts in the province were suffering from the drought, which had affected 2 million hectares of farmland and left 4.86 million people thirsty, causing losses of 8.87 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion).

In the drought-hit cities, vegetable prices have doubled and gasoline stations have been out of service between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.

Nationwide, 18.03 million people in 15 Chinese provinces and regions were suffering drinking water shortages caused by the drought, the Ministry of Water Resources said on its website Saturday.

It said the drought had affected more than 130 million hectares of cropland and at least 17 million livestock.

South China's Guangdong Province has also reported high temperatures and a lack of rain for 10 days running.

The provincial meteorological bureau said the mercury hovered at 37 degrees Celsius in most parts of the province over the weekend and remained at 36 on Monday.

Even in Liaoning Province in northeast China, where summer is traditionally known to be cooler than most parts of the country, continuous drought has affected 67 hectares of cropland and destroyed 20 hectares.

Agricultural experts in Liaoning say the average relative humidity of the farmland in the provincial capital of Shenyang and western parts of the province is between 39 percent and 64 percent, indicating moderate to severe drought.

The provincial meteorological bureau said rainfall was down by 60 to 80 percent this summer in most areas and the high temperatures had worsened the drought particularly in the northwestern part of the province.

The bureau forecast no significant rainfall in the next 10 days.