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Polluted water reaches Harbin

China alerts Russia as toxin arrives at city's water supply inlet

HARBIN: The front of the polluted water of Songhua river in northeast China reached Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, early on Thursday morning, local environment authorities said.

The toxic benzene-contaminated water, flowing down from the upper reaches of Songhua, arrived at the local water supply inlet at about 5 a.m., and has now entered river sections across the city's urban areas, according to the Heilongjiang provincial environment protection bureau.

Efforts to clean up river

Since the river was contaminated in a chemical plant explosion in the neighbouring Jilin Province on November 13, the benzene and nitrobenzene density in the water is declining gradually after days of sedimentation and adsorption, and the Harbin city government has added a large amount of active carbon powders into the river to help clean up the water.

Harbin, home to nine million population including 3.8 million in the urban districts, has cut off water supply in the urban areas since early on Wednesday, an emergency action taken to ensure public safety.

The operation of the city's water supply system was temporarily resumed on Wednesday afternoon following a forecast by China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) that the polluted water will not reach the city until Thursday.

The SEPA confirmed the ``major pollution'' of the Songhua river on Wednesday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing on Thursday that China has informed Russia of the water pollution situation in the river, a tributary of the Heilong river (called Amur river in Russia) on the border between the Russian far east and China.

Russia expressed appreciation of China's information, said Mr. Liu, adding that China will further strengthen the monitoring of the pollution situation and the level of pollutants in the river. — Xinhua

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