A chemical plant blast that left four dead and 11 injured in
northwest China on Monday caused no contamination to the Yellow
River, China's second longest waterway and source of drinking
water, the local government said in Lanzhou Tuesday.
Emergency measures were used to stop 80 tons of water used to
extinguish the chemical plant fire from flowing into the Yellow
River, the area's principal source of drinking water, said Zhang
Zhengmin, deputy head of the local environmental protection
authority.
Tests showed the water quality of the section of the river
flowing through Gansu Province and the air quality were within
national safety levels and posed no risk to residents in the area,
Zhang said.
The 5,464-kilometer Yellow River begins in Qinghai Province, the country's northwest and
flows eastward through Gansu and other regions before flowing into
the Bohai Sea.
The Gansu section, on the upper reaches of the river, stretches
913 kilometers passing four cities and prefectures.
The blast ripped through a chemical plant owned by Lanzhou
Petrochemical Co. Ltd. in the provincial capital on Monday
afternoon killing four employees and injuring 11 of whom four are
seriously injured. The firm is a subsidiary of PetroChina one of
the three big state-owned oil companies. An investigation into the
cause of the explosion is underway.
With memories still fresh of a pollution incident caused by a
chemical plant blast in northeast China last year which led to
water supplies being suspended residents have been storing tap and
bottled water amid widespread concerns over the quality of drinking
water supplies.
About 100 tons of pollutants containing benzene spilled into a
river in Heilongjiang Province after a chemical plant blast
upstream last November forcing cities along the river to
temporarily cut off water supplies.
Gansu, where a high density of heavy industries have been
discharging pollutants into the river, is to conduct a major
environmental clean-up campaign to control pollution and improve
river conditions by 2010.
About 237 million tons of sewage from the province is pumped
into the river each year of which just 34 percent was properly
treated, said Yang Zhiming, vice-governor of Gansu.
The local government plans to invest 4.97 billion yuan (US$612.8
million) on 199 projects to assist heavy industries in reduce
pollution, construction of sewage treatment plants and the
installation of monitoring facilities to ensure better water
quality, according to the provincial environment protection
authority.
(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2006)