Water supplies to 200,000 people in Shuyang county of east
China's Jiangsu Province have been halted for more
than 40 hours after ammonia and azote polluted a local river.
Water supplies to 200,000 people in Shuyang county of east
China's Jiangsu Province have been halted for more than 40 hours
after ammonia and azote polluted a local river.
The county government said it was unable to tell when supplies
would resume because the environment watchdog was yet to pinpoint
the source of the pollutants before measures could be taken to curb
the spill.
Harmful substances were detected in the water at 3:00 pm on
Monday and the level of 28 mg per cubic meter is about three times
the upper limit for drinkable water.
"The tap water turned yellowish and smelly at 3:00 pm. Supplies
were cut off after a while," said Li Jinping, a resident in Xuefu
Community in the county proper.
A resident from neighboring Huayuan Community complained her
house had had no tap water since midday Monday. "Except for a few
drops of red, stinky water on Monday night," said Wang Yinzhen.
An initial investigation indicated the pollution could have been
caused by industrial sewage from chemical plants on the upper
reaches of the Xinyi River, which originates in Shandong
Province.
The county government is seeking help from Shandong to trace the
pollution source.
Meanwhile, it has arranged alternative water supplies from 33
unpolluted wells, a spokesman with the county government said.
He said the county had also diverted water from Hongze Lake into
local water sources to dilute the pollutants.
Jiangsu suffered another water crisis at the end of May, when a
severe blue-green algae outbreak left tap water undrinkable for a
week for half of the 2.3 million residents in Wuxi city.
Barely two weeks after the water returned normal, satellite
pictures captured on June 15 indicated another algae bloom spanning
800 square kilometers in the central-western and northern parts of
the lake, causing wide-spread concern in cities along China's third
largest fresh water lake.
(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2007)
