Drinking water supplies have
stabilized in the northeastern Chinese city of Mudanjiang,
Heilongjiang Province, where reported river pollution caused
panic-buying of bottled water, a local official said on
Thursday.
A total of 15,521 boxes of bottled water were sold in Mudanjiang on
Tuesday, seven times more than usual. But on Wednesday, sales
volumes dropped to 5,562 boxes, Wang Shuyin, spokesman and
secretary-general for the Mudanjiang municipal government, told a
press conference.
"The situation has stabilized," Wang said.
The local environmental watchdog has held three enterprises
accountable for polluting a major water source in the city. Their
operations were suspended on Thursday.
Environment administrations of Mudanjiang and neighboring Hailin
City have investigated 23 industrial enterprises along the Hailang
River, a major source of water for Mudanjiang, and found that three
of them were discharging large amounts of pollutants into the
water, well above the national safety level.
Two of the enterprises named were Hailin Xueyuan Distillery, the
brewery for Hailin Beer, and a butchery belonging to Hailin Food
Company.
Experts said the distillery dumped large amounts of grain into the
river, which fermented and accelerated, coupled with warmer
temperatures recently, the multiplication of certain
organisms.
Experts confirmed on Thursday that the organisms in the river were
a type of aquatic fungus, whose appearance indicates
pollution.
Mudanjiang's water source is located at the lower reaches of the
Hailang River, a tributary of the Mudanjiang River. Local people
have built three nets in Hailang River to block the fungus, which
was detected on February 19.
The local water supply corporation
has sterilized its running water with chlorine. Tap water in the
city is safe to drink, experts said.
(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)