A severe drought in southwestern China is threatening the water supplies of six million people in the crowded metropolis of Chongqing, Reuters quoted Xinhua news agency as saying today. The city faces an acute water shortage in early March due to a continuing drought along the Yangtze River, the agency said citing a local meteorological expert. "The city will be lacking at least 500 million cubic metres of drinking and irrigation water and about six million people will be thirsty," Xinhua quoted the local meteorologist as saying. Official figures show that the amount of water stored in Chongqing's reservoirs is around 1.17 billion cubic meters, less than half the normal storage, it said. The southern province of Guangdong said it was considering rationing water to industry, farms and residents to ease a drought there.
