The Yellow River is drying up as northern China labours under the most severe drought to hit in years, Xinhua said.
By the end of last month, water storage in major reservoirs along the river was below six billion cubic metres, 2.5 billion cubic metres less than last September, said Xinhua.
The levels are reaching a critical stage as the provinces of Shandong, Henan, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia alone need seven billion cubic metres of water in the last three months of this year.
By the end of next month the Xiaolangdi Reservoir, China's largest water-control reservoir on the Yellow River, is expected to use up all its reserves. When that happens, all the lower reaches of the Yellow River may dry up.
The crisis comes as rainfall has been 30 per cent to 60 per cent lower than last year in most regions along the Yellow River, the Xinhua report quoted an expert with the Yellow River Conservancy Commission as saying.
To tackle the crisis the commission, which took charge of water resources allocation along the Yellow River region in 1999, has decided to adopt several emergency measures.
The authorities have ordered reservoirs at the upper reaches such as Liujiaxia to gradually increase water supply to the lower reaches, while water rationing has been enforced in Inner Mongolia and Ningxia.