China, Russia race to finish dam as poison slick nears urban center

0 Comments | AFP, December, 2005

KHABAROVSK, Russia (AFP) — Thousands of Chinese laborers supported by Russian military helicopters and hundreds of trucks raced against time to finish a dam to protect the Russian city of Khabarovsk from a toxic spill expected to hit Wednesday, officials said.

Officials said Tuesday the sandbag dam, one of two built hastily to prevent the possible flow of benzene-contaminated water from the Amur river into Khabarovsk, a city of 600,000 in Russia's Far East region, would be completed before the poison reached the city.

Two Russian military Mi-26 helicopters were flying non-stop to ferry sandbags to the site of the dam on the Kazakevich channel, one of many small branches of the Amur river west of Khabarovsk, to complete the last few meters of the 300-meter (985-foot)...