Toxic water crisis easing for Harbin City

Harbin City, China: A surge of toxic chemicals pouring down a river flowing through a northeastern Chinese city was expected to have passed through by early Saturday morning, bringing respite from a water crisis that has plagued residents.

As the nine million people in Harbin suffered a fourth day without running water, soldiers and workers raced to ensure the city's water would be safe to drink when taps were turned back on, installing new filters at treatment plants, state media said.

The pipe network was shut down on Tuesday evening to protect Harbin residents from up to 100 tonnes of cancer-causing benzene compounds spilt into the Songhua river from which Harbin pumps its water.

An explosion at a chemical plant upstream triggered the release of the toxins.

The spill could affect hundreds of thousands more people in China alone as it heads downstream, and then crosses into Russia, although officials say the concentration of toxins will fall.

Benzene levels in Harbin were down to 2.3 times officially acceptable levels on Saturday compared to 30 times on Friday morning, the city government Web site said.

But the passage of the 80 km (50 mile) slick, flowing at around 2 km an hour, has been slowed by low water levels and lumps of ice that have already formed on the freezing water.

Late on Friday, teams used picks and crowbars to break up the ice.

The government has scrambled to avoid a health crisis by trucking in massive supplies of bottled water and sinking new wells around the city after water supplies were cut off late Tuesday.

Harbin city officials told local newspapers they have prepared a plan to restore tap water to residents but urged caution.

"Don't immediately drink the water," says the plan.

State television said some water would start flowing again in the early hours of Monday morning.

Some residents said they are worried the water might not be safe.

Newspapers on Friday accused local officials of reacting too slowly and criticised them for failing to tell the public the truth until this week.

Even the state-run Xinhua News Agency called on officials to be more frank. "Telling the truth is the precondition for handling a public crisis," it said in a commentary.