Last Tuesday's Xinhua Daily Telegraph reported on lessons learnt from the water crisis in Harbin, capital of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, which was forced to shut down its water supplies for five days from November 23.

This was due to benzene and nitrobenzene contamination of the Songhua River after an explosion at a chemical plant in neighboring Jilin Province on November 13.

The article said during the cutoff there were no incidents of poisoning with the incidence rate of intestinal diseases the same as that before the contamination, and that the city has returned to normal.

Speak the truth to the public

At the beginning of the crisis, rumors about an earthquake and water pollution spread throughout the city and people began to stockpile water and food from noon on November 20. Some slept in tents in the street while others left the city.

Midday the next day, 30 hours before the pollutants would reach Harbin, the municipal government announced a four-day water supply cut-off due to "examination and maintenance of water supply channels."

This unconvincing reason resulted in panic buying of water, with queues at supermarkets and wholesalers that afternoon.

Early on November 22, a public notice confirmed the river pollution, and another telling people to store water was later issued as the provincial government launched 24-hour water quality monitoring.

The city of Harbin initiated a coordinated emergency response mechanism involving water supply, heating supply, medical care and public security departments. Information was also made available via telephone, TV, radio, internet and text messaging to provide advice.

Soon after that, prices of plane tickets returned to normal as many were returned to operators. Xinhua Daily Telegraph said that telling the public the truth succeeded in winning their trust.

Keep the market stable

On the afternoon of November 21, panic buying of drinking water was rampant, and in Metro supermarket in Harbin's Daoli District, shelves were empty of water.

In a grocery in Xiangfang District, one customer told a reporter that the price of a box of mineral water had risen from 12 yuan (US$1.5) to 20 yuan (US$2.5).

To curb the price hike and keep the market stable, Harbin's government required industries like car washes and bathhouses to suspend services and on the night of November 21, it asked drinking water companies to organize and transport goods urgently to the city.

On November 22, 1,300 tons of drinking water arrived in Harbin from Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province and by November 23 prices returned to normal.

Focus on priorities

In a city where temperatures dropped below zero at night, the heating supply is a priority for daily life, and keeping it running while facing a water shortage provided a severe challenge for the local government.

Before cutting off the water supply, the municipal government required all heating service departments to calculate the volume of water they would need for heating.

A total of 918 deep groundwater wells were opened and 81 new wells dug to ensure water supplies to boilers, and more than 140 vehicles carried water from other sources.

Many factories were required to reduce temperatures to ensure warmth in households, apart from the Dalianhe Gasification Plant in Yilan County, which controls the city's gas supply.

The municipal government suspended all urban primary and secondary school classes from November 24, and all universities were required to dig wells and use fire engines and water wagons to supplement supplies.

To ensure supply to hospitals, the provincial fire department used 30 fire engines to meet the need of 200 hospitals all over Harbin.

The municipal government also allocated almost 10 million yuan (US$1.24 million) to provide free drinking water and equipment to low-income families, disabled people and veterans, a total of 310,000 citizens.

(China.org.cn by Li Shen, December 7, 2005)