"(China) is facing a water crisis more severe and urgent than any other country in the world," Qiu Baoxing, vice minister of construction, was quoted as saying.

"We've got to solve the problem before it is too late."

Less than half the waste water generated in Chinese cities was treated and recycled, a figure the government aimed to raise to 60 to 70 percent in five years, Qiu told a news conference on Monday.

And 20 percent of water supplies in domestic cities was lost through leaky pipes, Qian Yi, a professor of environmental engineering at Tsinghua University, was quoted as saying.

Heavy pollution of rivers across China makes much of its available water undrinkable.

"Short-sightedness in economic development accompanied with environmental destruction is still widespread in China," Qian said.

Water shortages had struck several cities in the prosperous southern province of Guangdong due to months of drought that had destroyed farmland, dried up rivers and reservoirs and allowed salt water to wash upstream and contaminate fresh water supplies, the China Daily said.

The drought in Guangdong was likely to persist, with little rainfall predicted until spring, and was moving towards the heavily populated Pearl River Delta region, a booming manufacturing hub, it said.

"We haven't had a single drop of water this autumn," Liu Chenguang, deputy director of the the Zhuhai Water Resources Department, was quoted as saying.

China suffers widespread drought each year, though the south is more often victim to flooding following typhoons tearing in from the South China Sea.

In the neighbouring Guangxi region, China's biggest sugar producer, months of dry weather are threatening the current harvest.