WATER CUTOFF TESTIFIES CHINA'S ABILITY TO TACKLE POLLUTION EMERGENCIES

    "It is an unprecedented incident for a city with millions of people in China to face such a severe water pollution, which adds difficulties to decision-making and treatment," said Zhang Zuoji.

    After the accident happened, the provincial government has specifically allocated 10 million yuan (1.23 million US dollars) to tackle the emergency and meanwhile launched an all-day monitoring of the water quality.

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::::::	CNPC, Jilin apologize for river pollution
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::::::	Harbin to resume water supply after four days
::::::	Harbin on first day of water cut-off
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::::::	Harbin to suspend water supply at wee hours Wednesday

    In addition, the city of Harbin started a coordinative emergency response mechanism that grouped relevant governmental departments together, such as water supply, heating supply, medical care and public security.

    During the cutoff period, the city government suspended the operation of all car washing and bathing service agencies but ensure water supply for hospitals, key enterprises and heating service.

    "I was very worried when I first heard that water would be stopped, but later when I saw a great many cars carrying pure and bottled water in the streets and the water at supermarkets were sold at normal price, I felt much relieved," said Sun Xiuyun in the Nangang District.

    To ensure water supply for heating service and hospitals, the city invited professionals to dig 945 new deep groundwater wells.

    Shi Wenqing, vice mayor of Harbin, said his city government hadset aside one million yuan (about 125,000 US dollars) for providing free drinkable water to those urban needy that total 100,100 during the water cutoff.

    Aside from these efforts, the city also opened hotlines and made public announcement over TV, radio, Internet and text messages to offer psychological help and water supply help.

    With the coordination of the central government, a total of 1,000 tons of activated carbon from other provinces and regions like Hebei, Ningxia and Shanxi have been shipped to Harbin by Sunday to help purify the river water.

    Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday arrived in Harbin to inspect the water pollution of the Songhua River and the public water supply system and urged the local government to be responsible for health and safety of the people.

    Also Saturday in Beijing, during a meeting with Russian ambassador Sergei Razov, Chinese Foreign Minister informed Russia about the water pollution and apologized to Russia over the possible harms to be done to the Russian people by the major environmental pollution accident when the toxic slick enters Russia.

    In Nairobi, Zhang Shigang, China's deputy permanent representative to UNEP (the United Nations Environment Program), met with the UN agency's Deputy Executive Director Shafqat Kakakhel on Saturday afternoon and gave him a thorough briefing on the disaster, pledging to provide update on the incident to the international community on a daily basis.

    According to the city government, no case of poisoning by benzene had been reported during the period and besides, the city witnessed a decrease of criminal cases and no major fires or traffic accidents had been reported. Enditem