Chinese city shuts down water plant

Another city in north east China has shut down a water plant on a poisoned river fearing contamination from approaching toxic chemicals, an official said today.

The shutdown in Jiamusi, a city of about 480,000 people, came as China’s chief environmental regulator resigned, taking the blame for the chemical spill into the Songhua River.

The disaster has disrupted water supplies to millions of people in China and strained relations with Russia, where the spill is expected to reach Khabarovsk, a border city of 580,000 people, at the end of next week.

The benzene from a chemical plant explosion upstream is expected to reach Jiamusi on Tuesday, according to the government.

The city’s No 7 Water Plant “has been closed due to the possible contamination of the water supplies”, said Jiamusi city government headquarters.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the plant supplids 70-80% of the city’s drinking water.

Jiamusi is the second-biggest Chinese city affected by the spill, after the major industrial centre of Harbin upstream suspended running water for 3.8 million people for five days after benzene polluted the water supply.

The Chinese government has shipped thousands of bottles of drinking water to Jiamusi and other communities along the river and sent fire trucks and other vehicles to deliver water to residential neighbourhoods.

Yesterday, the director of China’s State Environmental Protection Administration resigned after being blamed for the disaster.

The environmental agency “is responsible for the major losses that were caused”, state television said.

There was no indication whether Communist Party leaders in Jilin province, where the plant was located, or neighbouring Heilongjiang, which lies downstream, might face punishment.

The Songhua flows into the Heilong River, which becomes the Amur in Russia.