Investigation underway into Chinese spill
Chinese leaders sent a team to investigate a chemical plant accident today that has poisoned a major river and said those officials responsible for the pollution will be punished.
The 3.8 million residents of the northeastern city of Harbin went a third day without running water, and were forced to wait in bitterly cold temperatures to get supplies from lorries that had been brought in.
Hundreds of villagers were being evacuated from near Harbin on the Songhua River as toxic benzene flowed past. A Russian city downstream is braced for its arrival. A UN agency said it has offered to assist in the clean-up operation, but has so far not received a reply from Beijing.
Some 6,000 people reportedly were evacuated following a second chemical plant explosion in China’s southwest, raising fears of a new poisoning disaster.
The team of investigators sent to Harbin includes disciplinary officials, which “indicates punishments of irresponsible acts are on the way”, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
It didn’t give any other details. But Chinese leaders have come to rely on such handpicked teams to investigate disasters, tacitly admitting they can’t trust information from local officials.
The November 13 explosion at a chemical plant in Jilin, a city about 120 miles southeast of Harbin, highlighted the environmental damage caused by China’s roaring economic growth and complaints that the government is failing to protect the public.
“The disaster has stunned the whole nation,” Xinhua said, in an apparent effort to assure the public that Chinese President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders share their shock and anger.
The government earlier said the 50 mile-long flow of benzene was expected to pass Harbin early tomorrow.
But the city’s deputy Communist Party secretary, Du Yuxin, said the water service might not resume until Monday. Officials had said they might need extra time to make sure supplies are safe.
Usually docile government newspapers criticised the handling of the disaster.
The government failed to detect the spill of benzene – possibly the world’s largest ever – for several days and Harbin city leaders said this week they were shutting down its water system without initially telling the public why.
The Beijing-based China Youth Daily published a detailed list of official missteps and confusion.
“If information is not given in a timely, accurate and transparent manner, it will leave room for rumours to spread,” it said.
Environmentalists have accused the government of failing to prepare for such a disaster and of failing to react quickly enough. They have questioned the decision to allow construction of a plant handling such dangerous materials near important water supplies.
One newspaper called on Beijing to learn a lesson from its outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, when the government was criticised for initially withholding information about the disease.
“The government should tell the public the truth,” the Beijing News said. “During SARS, the publication of truthful information turned the situation around.”
Such comments would not be published without high-level official approval. They appeared to be meant both to prod authorities in Harbin to do all they could to help the public and to warn officials elsewhere to prevent such disasters.
“Chinese leaders have sent strong messages in the past few days, ordering the relevant departments to ensure the safety of drinking water, closely follow the pollution situation and provide accurate information,” Xinhua said.
Environmental officials say the government handled the disaster properly. They say it was the fault of the chemical plant’s owner, a subsidiary of China’s biggest oil company, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
Two reservoirs on the Songhua have been ordered to release more water in order to dilute the toxin, Xinhua said.
Government leaders in Harbin have tried to reassure the public by trucking in water supplies and digging new wells. Schools have been closed and some people left the city, but most businesses remain open and many say they are trying to get on with normal life.
Yesterday, a line of some 500 people stretching for 100 yards waited in windy, sub-freezing weather in a working class district on the city’s east side for water to come by truck.
When a truck with a tank on its bed arrived, residents rushed to fill kettles, buckets and basins at a portable tap with five spigots.
“Everyone has enough at home for the basics, but they want to add some for washing and cooking,” said Guan Hongya, a 54-year-old manager for a textile firm, who was filling buckets to carry back to her third floor apartment.
The floor of Guan’s kitchen was covered with pots, pans and plastic rubbish bins that she filled with water after the government said supplies would be suspended. In the bedroom were plastic-wrapped bundles of dozens of bottles of drinking water.
“Three days?” Guan said, when asked how she would cope if water isn’t restored until Monday. “No problem.”
China’s environmental agency says the pollutants in the Songhua River are expected to reach Russia in about two weeks. The Songhua flows into the Heilong River, which crosses the border and becomes the Amur in Russia, flowing through the city of Khabarovsk.
The United Nations has offered to help China with the spill but has received no reply or information, said Vladimir Sakharov, executive director of the Geneva-based Environmental Emergencies Section of the UN Environment Programme.
“We need basic, official information from the Chinese side, which we do not have,” Sakharov said.
He said it was impossible to know how damaging the spill might be without more information.
“We have asked,” he said. “We are still waiting.”
