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China's Harbin City Resumes Tap Water Supply "Provisionally"

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 November 2005, 09:00 CST

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China News Agency)

Harbin, 23 November: Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, provisionally resumed interrupted tap water supply on Wednesday [23 November], after confirming the exact time of arrivals of chemical pollutants from its water source of Songhua River as of Thursday morning.

The city of over three million population cut off water supply at wee hours Wednesday in fears of contamination of Songhua River.

The provincial government of Heilongjiang announced at a press conference Wednesday afternoon that Songhua River will send poisonous substances caused by the blast of a chemical plant located in the upper reaches of Songhua River in Jilin Province to Harbin at round 5 a.m. Thursday.

The Harbin Water Supply and Drainage Group Co. told Xinhua that the company fuelled engines to resume tap water supply at 12:00 Wednesday. Currently, the running water is up to normal daily supply amount.

"As the exact time of the pollutants flowing to the city's drinking water intake spot has been confirmed, we hoped that citizens could take time to hoard as much water as possible ahead of the water cut-off," said a company executive, who preferred to be anonymous.

He said that the company would wait for the government's order for the final cut-off of water supply.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Government said that the poisonous organic substances, mainly benzene and nitrobenzene of high density flowing down on the Songhua River was 28.56 times of the national standards as of 4 p.m. Wednesday. The pollutant strip will flow out of Harbin Saturday morning.

The municipal government of Harbin has formerly announced to cut off water supply for four days as of Wednesday morning.

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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