Toxic slick threatens south China cities
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-21 15:11

A toxic cadmium slick from a smelting works has polluted the Beijiang River in southern China and threatens water supplies for a city of one million people, state media said Tuesday.

The TV station in the city, Yingde, broadcast a warning Tuesday evening telling residents not to drink the tap water because of toxic contamination in the upper reaches of the river, the New China News Agency said.

Quoting the local government, the agency said the slick threatened water safety for about 100,000 urban residents of Yingde along the lower reaches of the river.

The river - which runs into the Zhujiang, or Pearl River, and flows through the main southern city of Guangzhou - is a major source of drinking water for cities in the north of Guangdong Province, it said.

The provincial environment protection department in Guangdong reported that the slick had been caused by an excessive discharge of waste from a state-owned smelting works in Shaoguan, 55 miles north of Yingde, the agency said.

Waste discharges had increased the volume of cadmium in the river at Shaoguan to nearly 10 times above safety levels, "seriously endangering" the safety of water downstream, the department found.

The smelter has halted operations and closed the waste water outlet blamed for the discharge, according to the Shaoguan environmental protection office, the agency said.

The toxic slick was moving slowly towards Yingde and was due to reach the city in "two or three days," it said.

The Guangdong provincial government has decided to discharge water from reservoirs in the upper reaches of the river to dilute the pollution, the agency said, quoting experts it said arrived in Yingde on Sunday. It did not say when the discharge occurred.

Water carriers, including 15 fire engines, have also been put into service to ferry drinking water, it said.