Word: songhua
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RESIGNED. XIE ZHENHUA, 56, Director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA); in the aftermath of the Nov. 13 chemical plant explosion, which spewed 100 tons of pollutants into the Songhua River; in Beijing. Xie is the highest-ranking official to lose his job over an environmental disaster. Official reports gave no details on Xie's role in government decisions to withhold information from the public about the river contamination, which resulted in a four-day shut-off of water for more than 3 million people in the city of Harbin. The poisonous slick, expected to reach the Russian...
...spill had occurred on Nov. 13 when an explosion at a state-owned chemical factory in the province of Jilin released huge amounts of benzene into the Songhua river. But for the next nine days the government balked at telling citizens of Harbin, in the neighboring province of Heilongjiang, about the approaching pollutants, despite the fact that the river is the source of drinking water for the center of the city. The crucial decision to keep the spill secret was explained to provincial officials by Heilongjiang governor Zhang Zuoji at an internal meeting in Harbin's Peace Village Hotel...
...said. "On the other hand, investment in Heilongjiang province is at a critical moment. The travel season is nearly upon us, especially the ice festival." Harbin's annual ice festival draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to view massive sculptures carved from blocks of ice taken from the Songhua...
...Finally, we needed to consider who will speak to the outside," he said, apparently in reference to notifying downstream cities in Russia. The Songhua flows into Russia's Amur river before emptying into the Sea of Okhotsk. "We asked the State Council, who will inform them? And how? This is not the kind of thing a province can decide...
...earthquake or a bird flu outbreak. At 2 a.m. on Nov. 22-presumably with Beijing's permission-Harbin put out a second statement alerting the population to the water stoppage. This time, the statement acknowledged that the chemical-plant explosion had "perhaps polluted the water" in the Songhua. This announcement seemed to calm residents, as did efficient logistics that ensured access to plenty of clean drinking water trucked in from neighboring cities...