Harbin, China – The Chinese government restored running water to this city of 3.8 million Sunday night after a five- day shut-off caused by a massive chemical spill, easing a crisis that has highlighted China’s severe environmental problems and hurt the credibility of the ruling Communist Party.
The water supply in Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, came back on at 6 p.m., state-run news media reported. Earlier, the city announced that toxin levels in the Songhua River had fallen within safety standards as a 50-mile slick of benzene and other poisonous chemicals moved downstream.
Zhang Zuoji, the provincial governor, was shown on state television taking the city’s first drink of tap water.
But the government warned residents not to drink the water themselves yet. It will take time to flush out sediment from the pipes, state media said, and city workers were still treating the water with disinfectants.
The city said the public should expect interruptions in water service in the days ahead, as well as color-coded bulletins about water quality – red when unusable, yellow when suitable for washing and cleaning, green when safe for drinking.
“So far, the water is as normal as it used to be: colorless, transparent and no special smell,” said Wang Yanli, 23, a waitress at a dumpling restaurant. “We’re already using it for cleaning.”
But even as life began returning to normal in the city, the toxic pollution moved through rural villages and towns downstream. It is expected to flow through the port city of Jiamusi before entering the Heilong River, crossing into Russia and contaminating the water supplies at Khabarovsk at week’s end.
The Chinese government says that rural residents along the Songhua have been warned of the pollution and that most rely on underground sources of water not linked to the river.
