Water cut off in China's Harbin city amid chemical scare

BEIJING, Wednesday (AFP) Water supplies were cut off in one of China's biggest cities Wednesday, as the government confirmed a potential chemical leak into river water from a factory blast was behind the "emergency" measure.

Water to the urban districts of Harbin, the capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province, were stopped at midnight Tuesday, the local government announced as it struggled to calm the fears and panic buying of residents.

"The recent explosion of two benzene processing towers at PetroChina's Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company could end up polluting waters in the Songhua river," Harbin's top leader Du Yuxin said in a statement.

"The city government has decided to provisionally stop supplying water to the public water network, this is an emergency order and a responsible measure to ensure the safety and health of citizens."

Press reports said 3.8 million people in the urban districts were expected to be without water from the public network for four days.

However a government announcement ordering the stoppage did not give a timeframe for when water services would resume.

Du ordered citizens to remain calm and work with the government to overcome the problem.

The water stoppage follows the massive November 13 explosion at the PetroChina petrochemical plant some 380 kilometers (230 miles) up the Songhua river from Harbin in neighboring Jilin province.

Jilin authorities refused to comment Wednesday on whether the explosion had contaminated the river within the province.

One official from the environmental protection bureau of Jilin's Songyuan city, some 180 kilometers up river from Harbin, said water had been cut off to residents in parts of the city but refused to comment further.