"The top priority of our drought relief work is to ensure safe drinking water and safeguard people's health,'' E said.
Heavily polluting paper and chemical plants have long been cited as key sources of degradation of most of China's waterways. In some areas, the problems have prompted riots by local residents outraged by chronic health problems and the destruction of their fields and fish farms.
Millions of other Chinese face risks from naturally occurring contaminants, such as excess fluorine, which affects water supplies for 63 million people and arsenic, which taints water supplies for 2 million. Another 38 million have only brackish water to drink, the report said.
The problems are not limited to the countryside. These revelations follow a Xinhua report on Wednesday that said about 90 percent of China's cities have polluted underground water.
Recent chemical spills in the northeast and south of the country also temporarily spoiled water supplies for millions of people and highlighted the severity of the crisis.
Earlier this week authorities reported that toxins in the Bei River, in southern China's Guangdong Province, had nearly returned to safe levels after a Dec. 15 spill of more than 1,000 tons of cadmium-laced water from a smelter in the city of Shaoguan.
Cities along the Bei temporarily stopped drawing water from the river and dams were closed.
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