Water cut off in China's Harbin city amid chemical scare

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2005

BEIJING, (AFP) — Water supplies were cut off in one of China's biggest cities, as the government confirmed a potential chemical leak into river water from a factory blast was behind the "emergency" measure.

Water to the urban districts of Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province, were stopped at midnight Tuesday, the local government announced as it struggled to calm the fears and panic buying of residents.

"The recent explosion of two benzene processing towers at PetroChina's Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company could end up polluting waters in the Songhua river," Harbin's top leader Du Yuxin said in a statement.

"The city government has decided to provisionally stop supplying water to the public water network, this is an emergency order...