Panic as China cuts water to major city

Panic as China cuts water to major city

Robert J. Saiget, Agence France-Presse/Beijing

Panic spread through one of China's largest cities on Tuesday as
residents hoarded water and food ahead of a four-day water
stoppage due to fears that a chemical plant explosion had
contaminated drinking supplies.

"In order to safeguard water safety in the urban districts,
the municipal government has decided to provisionally stop
supplying water to the public water network," the government of
Harbin city, the capital of the northeastern province of
Heilongjiang, said in a statement.

The order follows a Nov. 13 explosion at a petrochemical plant
in Jilin city, 380 kilometers up the Songhua river from Harbin.

The explosion killed at least five people and resulted in the
temporary evacuation of tens of thousands of others who were
forced to flee a cloud of toxic smoke.

"At present there is no sign of any abnormalities along the
Songhua river in the Harbin section, but the environmental
protection agency expects that up-river pollution could appear in
the coming days," the government said.

Government officials, when contacted by phone, refused to say
how many people would be affected by the water stoppage, only
saying that the supply would be cut off for four days beginning
at 8:00 pm on Tuesday.

Harbin is a city of more than eight million people but only
some three million people live in the city's urban districts.

Locals aware of the pending water stoppage began hoarding
water and food as early as Sunday, amid government pronouncements
telling people to stay calm and "stop listening to rumors," state
press reports said.

"City industry and commerce bureaus, police and other
departments must strengthen supervision and management of markets
and ensure market and social order," the local government
statement said.

The government was also forced to quell wild rumors that
Harbin was going to be hit by an earthquake, state press said, a
reflection of both the panic in the city and the lack of timely
information by authorities.

"The talk that Harbin will be hit by an earthquake in the
coming days is purely rumor -- residents should not worry, there
is no need to panic," a Heilongjiang seismological bureau
spokesman told a government-run news website.

"There is completely no need to buy up and hoard food items,
or set up tents to live outside."

Local supermarkets reported all their bottled water was
quickly sold out. State media showed pictures of empty shelves
and shoppers hoarding water and soft drinks.

The city has bought 1,500 tons of bottled water from nearby
cities to meet the shortage, Xinhua news agency said late on
Tuesday.

Government offices, factories, enterprises and institutes such
as hospitals and schools were also told to ensure their water
storage facilities were full before the stoppage began.

The government also put in place an emergency plan to divert
commercially available water from surrounding cities and regions,
Xinhua said.

The local Harbin government is inspecting the city's 386 wells
to see how many can provide water that is clean enough for
household use.

The blast at the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company, which
is located on the banks of the Songhua river, was due to a
failure by workers to shut a gas valve in a timely manner.

This led to exceedingly high temperatures setting off a series
of explosions that leveled two of the plant's fuel towers where
the highly flammable gas benzene was being processed, Xinhua
said.

Over 60 people were injured in the blast, with 23 still in
hospital. After allowing the evacuees to return, the government
gave no indication in the state press that the accident may have
polluted the river.