Water supplies resume in northeast China city

Water supplies resumed in homes around in Jilin City, northeast China, Thursday, a day after 3,000 chemical-filled barrels were washed into a major river, causing contamination fears, according to the local water company.

A spokesman for the city's water affairs group denied the suspension, which began around Wednesday noon, was due to fears of chemical contamination.

He said supplies were cut due to "maintenance of water supply facilities."

Water supplies in the city's urban area had "basically" resumed, said the spokesman.

Tao Detian, a spokesman for the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said Thursday the water quality of the Songhua River tested clear Thursday as emergency workers were still racing to recover the barrels of chemicals that were swept into the waterway by floods.

A resident surnamed Zhang in Fengdian Garden of Jilin's Chuanying District told Xinhua water supplies in his community had resumed Thursday morning, and the bottled water he stored Wednesday was not used.

Supermarkets in downtown Jilin City were reportedly doing brisk sales in bottled drinking water.

The 1,900-km Songhua River is the largest tributary of the Heilong River, a border river between China and Russia.

Source: Xinhua