50-mile toxic slick flows through Chinese city

A SLICK of river-borne toxins from a chemical plant explosion flowed into a major Chinese city yesterday as the authorities faced increasing criticism of their handling of the situation.

The 50-mile-long patch of water carrying benzene began entering Harbin, a city of 3.8 million people in China’s northeast, before dawn, the government said. It was expected to take 40 hours to pass. Shi Zhorgxin, director of the city’s water bureau, said: “After it passes ... we will have to make efforts to disinfect the water.”

He gave no details.

Harbin shut down its water system on Tuesday after a chemical plant explosion November 13 in the city of Jilin spewed benzene into the Songhua River. Jilin is about 120 miles southeast.

The announcement of the impending shutdown set off panicked buying of bottled water, soft drinks and milk. Families stocked up by filling bathtubs and buckets.

The city announced it was digging 100 new wells.

The government didn’t publicly confirm the Songhua had been poisoned until 10 days after the explosion, which killed five people. State Environmental Protection Administration official Zhang Lijun said local officials and companies were told as soon as the spill was detected and stopped using river water.

Environmentalists criticised the government for failing to take action and inform the public sooner.

Xue Ye of Friends of Nature said: “Careful environmental evaluation should have been made to avoid building dangerous factories near residential areas and water sources in the first place.”

In Russia, authorities in the city of Khabarovsk, downstream from Harbin, said they haven’t received enough information on the threat. The Songhua flows into the Heilong River, which flows into Russia, where it is called the Amur.

The disaster highlights the precarious state of China’s scarce water supplies. It is trying to meet competing demands from its 1.3 billion people and booming industry, while the government says major rivers are dangerously polluted.

But Mr Zhang said Beijing has shared information and might set up a hotline with Moscow.

He said the chemical would take two weeks to reach Russia.