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Harbin calmer as benzene slick creeps into town

"They've known about this pollution for 10 days but didn't say a thing, so no-one really knows what else they aren't telling us."

a newspaper seller in Harbin

An 80km-long slick of highly toxic benzene yesterday flowed along the icy Songhua river into Harbin, one of China's biggest cities, contaminating water supplies for up to 4 million people.

The carcinogenic chemical reached the outskirts of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, about 5am yesterday, authorities said.

Although water supplies were cut off about 30 hours before the poisoned water reached the city, and although there were no reports of people being contaminated, the environmental impact of the potential disaster was still unclear.

Schools remained closed in Harbin, residents continued to stockpile bottled water and other basic supplies, and dozens of wells were being dug, even though the government said the toxins would pass through the city by tomorrow.

"It will take about 40 hours for the slick to pass through Harbin City," an official told reporters in Beijing.

However, with the government waiting until Wednesday -- 10 days after an explosion at an upriver chemical factory that caused the benzene spill -- to confirm the potential disaster, some Harbin residents were taking no chances.

"We have stored up at least 15 days of water," one resident said.

A newspaper seller surnamed Cui said he did not trust the government following their failure to quickly disclose the benzene spill in neighboring Jilin Province.

"We don't know what's happening," Cui said as he sat on the banks of the Songhua in below-freezing temperatures. "They've known about this pollution for 10 days but didn't say a thing, so no-one really knows what else they aren't telling us."

Photos of dead fish along the banks of the Songhua also did little to ease environmental fears.

Harbin, which has about 3.8 million urban residents and a total population of about 9 million, is dependent on the 1,897km Songhua for its water supplies.

In Russia, a state of emergency was set to be put in place in the far east region of Khabarovsk today amid fears the slick would contaminate water supplies for 1.5 million residents there.

Emergency ministry officials in Khabarovsk, which borders Heilongjiang Province, said yesterday that the slick was expected to flow along the Songhua into Russia, and then into the bigger Amur river, within days.

But relative calm had been restored to Harbin after authorities brought in millions of bottles of water, reassuring residents that at least there would be reliable drinking supplies.

Meanwhile, global frozen food giant McCain's Foods has temporarily shut down its operations in Harbin due to the poisoned water supplies, workers said yesterday.

McCain's, the world's largest manufacturer of frozen French fries, halted work at its Harbin plant because there was not enough water in the city.
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