TONGHUA, Jilin, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Torrential rains have damaged water pipelines leaving 300,000 people without tap water for two days in Tonghua, an industrial city in northeast China's Jilin Province, officials said Monday.
More than 300 workers had been mobilized to restore the water supply, said Wang Ruimin, head of the public utility bureau in Tonghua. But he gave no deadline as to when the supply would be resumed.
Residents had largely relied on bottled water over the past 48 hours and authorities ordered 25 fire trucks to deliver water for domestic purposes, aside from drinking, to residential communities in the city from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday.
About 1,700 tons of water had been delivered this way, officials said.
Flood water had gushed into Tonghua's water plant at the Changliu Reservoir after a section of the embankment was breached Saturday. Four water pipelines had been damaged since Sunday, cutting supplies to the whole city, Wang said.
The city authorities were working to ensure adequate supplies of bottled water and had vowed to crack down on price manipulation.
Floods and rain-triggered landslides have left more than 100 people dead or missing in Jilin Province over the past week, provincial civil affairs officials said Sunday.
