ADB helping China avoid repeat of toxic spill
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-30 22:36

Asian Development Bank-funded projects underway in China will help avoid a repeat of the toxic spill in the Songhua River that deprived Harbin city of water for five days.

A Chinese couple walk on the frozen Songhua river in Harbin. Asian Development Bank-funded projects underway in China will help avoid a repeat of the toxic spill in the Songhua that deprived Harbin of water for five days. [AFP]

Harbin authorities on Sunday restored running water to its residents, five days after supplies were cut off due to a massive toxic spill in the Songhua earlier this month.

The spill highlighted the need to replace the nearby Songhua as the northeastern city's primary water source, the Philippines-based ADB said in a statement on Wednesday.

China is building a reservoir on the upper reaches of the Lalin river, 175 kilometers (108.5 miles) from Harbin, with the help of a 100 million-dollar ADB loan approved in 2003.

A new water treatment plant is also being built and the water distribution system will be upgraded.

A 1990s government study had suggested a link between health problems in Harbin and known and suspected trace organic chemicals in the Songhua, mainly through pollution from petrochemical plants upriver in Jilin province.

"There was uncertainty as to the extent to which these chemicals could be removed even with the advanced water treatment," said ADB financial specialist Sangay Penjor.

Heilongjiang province authorities decided to tap a new water source instead.

"Clean water will start to flow from the reservoir in the latter part of 2006, a year-and-a-half ahead of the original schedule," Penjor said.

When the second phase is completed in 2010, "Harbin would have enough water to replace the Songhua River as a drinking water source," he added.