Hu orders water safeguards after Shaanxi toxic spill

President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) has ordered officials to ensure water supplies near a dam in northern China are safe after a landslide caused a toxic spill and left 17 people missing, state press said yesterday.

"As we make efforts to find those missing, we must also place importance on water pollution after the dam burst and safeguard the drinking water supplies of people downstream," the Central Broadcast Station quoted Hu as saying.

Hu was speaking after the dam at a gold mine near Miliang township in Shaanxi Province burst on Sunday, triggering landslides and sending waters laced with potassium cyanide into the Huashui river, the report said.