City in Guangdong on alert over water pollution
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-12-21 13:33

The Yingde City of southern Guangdong Province is on high alert as the toxic stretch caused by a smeltery in the Beijiang River has arrived the city, threatening the safety of water supply for more than 100,000 residents in the city.

The polluted stretch had arrived at the Shakou Town by 22:30 Tuesday and was expected to arrive the city's urban district in two or three days, which might cause a halt to the water supply for the 100,000 residents there, according to the city's environment protection office.

By 23 p.m. Tuesday, the water supply in the urban district of Yingde, a city of 1.06 million people, continues as so far the water "is still safe", said an official with the government of Yingde, who declined to give his name.

Residents living in the north to a hydropower plant called Baishiyao, however, were warned not to drink the tap water, according to a notice the government issued through TV Tuesday evening.

So far, people's lives remains normal along the 470-km-long Beijiang River, which runs north to south into the Zhujiang (Pearl) River, according to the provincial environment protection department.

Yingde has begun to build a 1.4-km-long water pipe linking withthe supply line of a reservoir in suburb to send clean water directly to the urban district.

"The water pipe will be built up in 36 hours before the toxic stretch arrives the urban district," said an government official of Yingde.

In addition, a large quantity of water carriers, including 15 fire engines, have been used to send drinking water to the urban district.

Local environment authorities has established a dozen of monitoring stations along the Beijiang River, keeping a close eye on the water quality.

"We are required to take water sample for examination every twohours and so far, the water quality is OK," said He Yuanhang, a worker from the water quality monitoring station of Yingde, who isworking at the Baishiyao Hydropower Plant.

A waterworks, which is several kilometers north to the power plant has halted supply since last Sunday, said He.

The environment protection departments have found in the smeltery in Shaoguan City, which is about 90 km north of Yingde, an excessive discharge of waste, making the volume of cadmium in the river section in Shaoguan surge nearly 10 times above the safety standard and "seriously endangering" the water safety in the river's lower reaches.

The state-owned smeltery has halted operation and closed the waste water outlet blamed for excessive discharge, according to the environment protection office of Shaoguan City.

The density of cadmium kept dropping after the local government began to dilute the polluted water by increasing the discharge of the water reservoirs at Beijiang's upper reaches, according to the latest report from the provincial environment protection office.

The provincial government has decided to discharge more than 70million cubic meters of water from a reservoir and the diluted water will reach safety standard, according to the experts who arrived in Yingde from Guangzhou on Sunday.

A special task force, comprised of officials from the provincial supervision department and environment protection department, has been set up to investigate into the water pollution.

Shaoguan also launched an examination on pollution control of all the factories, according to the provincial government.

The Beijiang River is the major source of drinking water for the residents in Yingde, with an annual supply of 6 billion cubic meters for northern Guangdong.