My sympathies for those with low or no water. Not that you could find this in Kunming, but who knows:

www.msnbc.msn.com/[...]

Ocean, if you are renting then move.
Sounds like the severity of the problem is localised. Due to infrastructure or poor development quality.

@tigertiger
You're right - the neighbourhoods either side of us are not affected for some reason. Unfortunately the house is bought and paid for!

Calcium deposits inside pipes can cause flow restrictions.
the older systems have more buildup.

@Ocean
I met a friend who lives on Xuefu experiencing low or no water. He pointed out he can still get hot water from his solar water/heated tank. I think that water tank (like any) just attempts to pump water all the time to keep the tank filled, so it's like a 24 hour bucket filler.

I think those systems aren't too expensive. You could even just get the water tank without the solar part if you don't care about hot water, but solar heated water is pretty nice. Probably could have an electric or solar pump added for an additional boost.

@AlexKMG
Great advice Alek, thanks. We have been using our solar tank in just that way, but nervously at first as we couldn't be sure it was being refilled. After 4 months now, I's sure it IS refilling during the occasional half-hours we get runninng water. We're also lucky to have a bath, which provides a small reservoir which helps us through the waterless days!

Wow, I've had no idea this problem is so sever... We at Hongshan Nanlu have experienced only 1 low water pressure day and 1 no water day. Apart from those, no problem whatsoever. Hope it won't change in the near future.

Wow, I've had no idea this problem is so sever... We at Hongshan Nanlu have experienced only 1 low water pressure day and 1 no water day. Apart from those, no problem whatsoever. Hope it won't change in the near future.

So we had a lot of rain June. I took a before and after photo of Jindian Reservoir. I would say all that rain made less than 1% difference.

The pictures only show the front half of the reservoir. The back half stayed completely dried up.

www.flickr.com/photos/81678860@N05/

My neighbours have taken to defacing any new warning signs about the water rationing that are posted up on our communal noticeboard. I guess it's the Chinese way of registering anger whilst remaining anonymous.