China is building a temporary dam in an effort to reduce the impact of a toxic spill flowing along a river toward a city in the Russian Far East, the government said yesterday.
Beijing also said it is sending a second shipment of carbon to the Russian border city of Khabarovsk for use in filtering water.
The temporary dam and carbon shipments are part of Chinese efforts to ease strains with Moscow over the slick caused by a Nov. 13 explosion at a chemical plant in China's northeast.
Work began Friday to dam the waterway along the Heilong River, which forms the Chinese-Russian border and is carrying the spill toward Khabarovsk, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The waterway links the Heilong to the Wusuli River, which also supplies water to Khabarovsk, and authorities hope to shield the Wusuli from pollution.
Moscow said Friday the spill has reached Russian territory, flowing from China's Songhua River into the Heilong.
It is expected to hit Khabarovsk on Wednesday or Thursday, according to Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry.
"The temporary dam will be removed after the pollutant slick passes Khabarovsk along the Heilong River," Xinhua said. "China will bear the cost for the construction and demolition of the dam."
The spill was a diplomatic disaster for President Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) government, straining relations with Moscow, China's main foreign arms supplier and an important source of oil for the energy-hungry Chinese economy.
The chemical plant explosion in the Chinese city of Jilin spewed 90 tonnes of benzene, nitrobenzene and other toxins into the Songhua.
The general manager of the government company that owns the plant was removed from his post. China's chief environmental regulator resigned after his agency was accused of failing to detect and take action on the spill quickly enough.
Beijing has launched an investigation of the explosion and spill, promising to punish anyone responsible.
Local Communist Party officials in China's northeast were accused of endangering public safety by trying to conceal the spill but there has been no indication that they might be punished.
The government didn't announce that the Songhua was poisoned until Nov. 23, hours after the major city of Harbin shut down running water to 3.8 million people. The city earlier caused a panic by announcing the shutdown but saying it was for maintenance, an explanation that few of the city's residents believed.
Russia has built a dam on another waterway linked to the Heilong near Khabarovsk in an effort to move the slick past the city more quickly and protect nearby wetlands.
China also has sent nearly 150 tonnes of carbon to Khabarovsk for use in water filtration plants.
Yesterday, Xinhua said Beijing would send another 900 tonnes of carbon, plus water-monitoring equipment.
"We are ready to increase contacts and consultations with the Russian side and take effective measures to minimize the impact of the pollution," Qin Gang (秦剛), a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, was quoted as saying.
The head of the slick arrived Thursday in Tongjiang, a Chinese border city where the Songhua flows into the Heilong, Xinhua said.
The slick has lengthened and slowed as the rivers freeze, stretching from 90km in length at its start to 150km at the last report.
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
A Japanese city would urge all smartphone users to limit screen time to two hours a day outside work or school under a proposed ordinance that includes no penalties. The limit — which would be recommended for all residents in Toyoake City — would not be binding and there would be no penalties incurred for higher usage, the draft ordinance showed. The proposal aims “to prevent excessive use of devices causing physical and mental health issues... including sleep problems,” Mayor Masafumi Koki said yesterday. The draft urges elementary-school students to avoid smartphones after 9pm, and junior-high students and older are advised not
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying