Residents of a town along a poisoned river in northern China lined up with jugs and buckets to get water from trucks yesterday after officials shut down running water to 26,000 people.
Local authorities said the shutdown in Dalianhe would last three days and Chinese Communist Party members went door-to-door giving out bottled water in an effort to show that China's leaders can protect the public.
Service was stopped at 6pm on Wednesday on the outskirts of Yilan, a city in Heilongjiang Province, as a slick of benzene approached on the Songhua River. The toxic chemical was spewed into the river after an industrial accident on Nov. 13 in a neighboring province.
The government said Yilan itself would not likely be affected because the city of about 110,000 people gets its water from wells, not the river.
Yesterday, trucks filled with water were parked in neighborhoods around Dalianhe, a town of about 30,000 people near Yilan.
"When one person has trouble, eight will lend a hand," read a banner attached on the side of one of the vehicles. Workers stood by to help residents fill up their containers.
"This is just to have a little bit extra," said Zhang Liping, a 56-year-old retiree. "We got plenty of warning. We have lots of water at home."
Some trucks were from as far away as Harbin, about 250km west, where water to 3.8 million people was shut down for five days because of the pollution.
In Yilan, news reports showed police and party members in red armbands going door-to-door in freezing weather, handing out leaflets and giving cases of drinking water to the elderly and poor. In one scene, an elderly man lying in bed shook hands with a police commander.
Riverfront parks were closed in Yilan, which lies at the confluence of the Songhua and Mudan Rivers, a famous scenic spot.
Chinese Communist leaders are eager to show that while they failed to prevent the spill, they are concerned about public safety and can marshal the resources to handle the aftermath.
"I really thank the government," another man, Zhou Changgui, was shown saying.
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