China City on Alert for Possible Water Contamination

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Fifteen hospitals are on standby in one of China's biggest and coldest cities to take in contamination victims after water supplies were halted for fear of contamination from a chemical factory blast.

BEIJING — Fifteen hospitals are on standby in one of China's biggest and coldest cities to take in contamination victims after water supplies were halted for fear of contamination from a chemical factory blast.


Taps were turned off in Harbin, capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and known as Ice City for its long cold winters and the ice and snow festival held each January, at midnight on Tuesday.


And a government notice saying supplies would resume in four days have been removed, raising doubts about how long the crisis would last.


"The new notice does not necessarily mean an extension," a Harbin government spokesman told Reuters. "But we will make a decision after four days according to the water quality at that time.


"There is sufficient water. Residents have all stored a lot and we have been rushing in water from other places. We also have safe underground water."


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The water pipes were shut after an explosion at a chemical plant on Nov. 13 only a few hundred metres (yards) from the Songhua River, which supplies water to Harbin, a metropolitan area of nine million people. Five people were killed.


The river runs into Russia after several hundred kilometres. A foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday he did not know the extent of the pollution, if any, but that China always took care of other countries' cross border water interests.


"A 24-hour inspection of water has been launched 18 km (11 miles) up the Harbin segment of the Songhua River," Xinhua news agency said later on Tuesday.


"The municipal government ... has started up the city's emergency medical caring system, composed of 15 hospitals for the residents due to possible water contamination."


More than 16,000 tons of bottled water was being transported to Harbin from nearby cities and provinces.


"For the emergency use of water, fire engines and watering carts for water transport have been gathered," it said.


"Three to five water supply venues will be set up to provide water in each of the city's districts to avoid some vendors' speculation of water on the market."


All bathhouses and car-wash garages had been shut down and primary and middle schools closed.


"Teachers will communicate with their students via Internet and phones and be on duty in school by turns," Xinhua said.


Harbin, founded as a frontier town in the late 19th century, is famed for old Russian and European-influenced architecture.


Llyn Bryant, a British teacher who has lived in Harbin for six years, said he had been told by a school official that people might have died from drinking contaminated water.


But he said he had not seen anybody taken ill.


"Harbin is China's eighth-largest city, and when something like this happens somebody is bound to suffer," he said.


Source: Reuters


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