Chinese city cuts water in chemicals scare

A Chinese city of 3 million people has set off panic-buying of bottled water by announcing its water system will be shut down for four days to check for contamination from a chemical plant explosion.

The city government of Harbin in China’s north-east says it will suspend water service for four days, the government’s main Xinhua News Agency and newspapers reported.

The shutdown takes effect at noon local time today, the reports said. They didn’t say how many homes would be affected.

Yesterday, “anxious residents thronged supermarkets and shops to buy whatever they could lay their hands on,” the government newspaper China Daily said. Photos in the newspaper showed empty supermarket shelves labelled “drinking water”.

The shutdown was prompted by a November 13 explosion at a petrochemical plant in the nearby city of Jilin that killed five people, Xinhua said.

City officials worried that the blast “may have caused a leakage of poisonous substances” into the Songhua River, which supplies Harbin with drinking water.

The explosion in Jilin also forced the evacuation of 10,000 nearby residents. The blast was blamed on human error in a tower that processed benzene, a highly-flammable liquid.

“To ensure the safety of water, the municipal government has decided to thoroughly check the city’s water supply system and cut off supply temporarily,” said a city statement quoted by the China Daily.

The newspaper cited officials who said there was nothing wrong with the city’s water supply.

Prices of bottled water in Harbin have doubled, and the city government has ordered bathhouses and car washes to suspend operation.