More than 210,000 residents in two separate regions are suffering from contaminated drinking water supplies, local media reported yesterday.

In the first instance, water from the three branches of the Hanjiang River in Hubei province have reportedly been polluted by an unknown source, with 200,000 residents affected since Sunday.

"We first found that the color of the water had turned red and contained bubbles, about 4 pm on Sunday," Gao Qijin, the tap water factory chief of Xingou town on the side of the branch Dongjing River, was quoted as saying yesterday by the Chutian Metropolis Daily.