A toxic slick of polluted river water reached the outskirts of one of China’s biggest cities yesterday after an explosion at a petrochemical plant nearly two weeks ago. China said the blast had caused “major pollution”, spilling benzene compounds into the Songhua River from which Harbin, capital of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang and home to nine million people, draws its drinking water. Local officials warned residents yesterday to be on the look out for symptoms of benzene poisoning, which in heavy doses can cause anaemia and other blood disorders, as well as kidney and liver damage.

And the governor of Heilongjiang, Zhang Zuoji, ordered hospitals to brace for possible cases of poisoning. “If there are any cases of poisoning, we must concentrate our energies and do everything to treat them, ensuring there’s enough equipment, staff and medicine,” a newspaper quoted him as saying. Zhang also promised to drink the first glass of water from city taps once the pollution passes. A provincial government spokesman said the 80 km stretch of pollution passed Harbin’s water supply inlet early yesterday and was to flow past the city itself on Saturday.

Residents’ reactions ranged from stoic acceptance to anxiety, but there were few signs of panic in Harbin, where most residents continued to work and shops and restaurants remained open. “It’s worrying, because it may not have a strong smell or colour, so you can’t tell when it’s gone,” said Hong Shan, a retired official exercising beside the river. “It’s up to the government to keep us informed. We can’t tell ourselves.” Tickets for trains and buses leaving the city were available but scarce – as is common in this crowded country – and some residents were still preparing to take children away till the slick had passed and school returned at the end of the month.

The explosion happened at a chemicals plant in neighbouring Jilin province on Nov. 13 only a few hundred metres from the Songhua River. Five people were killed.

<B>Airborne threat</B>

Jilin has sought to block more pollutants entering the river, and also released a surge of water from a dam to dilute the toxins, Xinhua reported.

The Heilongjiang province government had told Harbin residents to stay away from the river to avoid possible exposure to airborne contaminants, Xinhua said. The State Environmental Protection Administration said banks of the river contained 100 times more than normal levels of chemicals with benzene, a solvent and component of petrol. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a government meeting on Wednesday on pollution. “Our country’s environmental situation remains grim,” the State Council was quoted as saying by Xinhua.

The pollutants had already passed through the smaller city of Songyuan, between Jilin and Harbin, water supplies had been partially cut for seven days. The Jilin plant, Jilin PetroChemical Co., had insisted it was not responsible for the pollution. But the deputy general manager of China National Petroleum Corp., Jilin PetroChemical’s parent company, apologised to Harbin residents and offered 60 trucks to help ship water into the city and a drilling team to dig wells.

A Harbin environmental protection group recently issued a report documenting widespread chemical pollution along the Songhua River. The report warned that many factories were secretly dumping waste water and chemicals into the river, and water treatment plants could not do enough.

Russia’s environmental protection agency said on Wednesday it was worried the pollution could affect drinking water supplies in its Khabarovsk region, which the Songhua enters several hundred kilometres downstream from Harbin. Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said all steps would be taken to ensure there was no health risk, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. “But so as to make sure these measures are effective, we need more information from the Chinese,” he said.

<B>Chris BUCKLEY</B>