The price for water use in ordinary households in the provincial capital of Guangzhou rose from 0.9 yuan (11 cents) a cubic meter to 1.32 yuan on January 1, the Southern Metropolitan Daily reported.

The rise far outpaced earlier government pledges to restrict the increase to 32 percent as agreed to at a public hearing held in September, angering many residents, it said.

"The price rise has caused dissatisfaction and hard feelings among the public that are understandable," Zhu Yongping, a delegate to the Guangzhou People's Congress told the paper.

"The public hearing on the price rise was flawed, there was not enough transparency in the process."

The rise comes as the coastal province is in the midst of a two-year drought that has sent water levels on local rivers and underground plunging.

The lack of water in the rivers has allowed huge salt-water tides to contaminate fresh water supplies.

The salt tide is especially pronounced along the Xi River, a major tributary of the Pearl River that supplies the cities of Zhongshan, Zhuhai and the former Portuguese colony of Macau with drinking water.

Zhuhai government has already advised residents to drink bottled water instead of tap water, while bottled water supplies have been diverted to the cities.

In an effort to flush the salt water out of the Xi River, the government will this month begin diverting 20 million cubic meters (700 million cubic feet) of fresh water from the Be River, the China Daily reported.

"The water diversion project from the Bei River to the Xi River is urgent," the China Daily quoted Chen Zhuhuang, an official with the Zhuhai Water Supply Company as saying.

The Guangdong drought is the latest in a spate of water problems to plague China, highlighting growing environmental concerns as the nation pursues economic growth at any cost.

A toxic spill of cadmium heavily contaminated the Bei River in December, although that waterway has now been declared safe from dangerous contaminants and been given the all-clear for the diversion to the Xi River.

In November a toxic spill of benzene from a petrochemical plant into the Songhua river resulted in water supplies being cut off for four million residents in the northeastern city of Harbin.

The Songhua pollution eventually flowed into Russia, raising environmental concerns there.

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