Bucket-toting residents in Shanghai's Songjiang District were lining up in front of fire bureau pumper trucks yesterday as a leak and equipment failures cut the water supply to 350,000 families in the district's central area.

Bucket-toting residents in Shanghai's Songjiang District were lining up in front of fire bureau pumper trucks yesterday as a leak and equipment failures cut the water supply to 350,000 families in the district's central area.

The taps are expected to be running again at around 6pm today, but in the meantime, residents, hotels and other businesses were forced to rely on supply from tankers and on bottled water.

The cutoff occurred about 6am yesterday at the Songjiang No. 2 Water Plant, when a leak caused a machine room to flood and the plant's six pumps to shut down.

"The company is trying its best to repair the pumps," said Zhou Ping, a district government official. "Experts from the city water authority said the repairs will take up to 36 hours."

Zhou said officials were still investigating the cause of the mishap.

The Songjiang District fire brigade sent more than 600 firefighters in 60 vehicles to the stricken area, after filling pumper trucks from a water source in the Sheshan area. The action will continue until the water company is back in business.

More than 30 tanker vehicles were dispatched to the district's University Town, which comprises seven colleges.

Hospitals also said they were adequately supplied, but some hotels were not as fortunate, including the Howard Johnson hotel, which had to rely on bottled water.