Dike to defend Russian city from Chinese toxic slick nearly built

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia (AFP) — Authorities in the far eastern Russian city of Khabarovsk have nearly finished building a dike to protect the city from a toxic slick released by last month's factory blast in China.

"There's about 50 metres left" to build of the projected 200-metre (650-foot) long dike, said Nikolai Yefimov, head of the local branch of the WWF environmental group.

The dam will block a river channel upstream from Khabarovsk in the hope of diverting a 130-kilometre (81-mile) long benzene slick away from the city of 600,000 people.

The Amur River splits into numerous branches above Khabarovsk. Officials hope that by blocking the Penzenskoy channel that the city will be largely untouched by the pollution.

Russian officials believe the slick...