Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province is setting up an investigation team soon to study whether the aquatic fungus found at a water supply source in Mudanjiang is harmful, the local government said Friday.

 

The team will consist of experts from the provincial departments of environmental protection, public security, health, and production safety, said an official with the provincial government.

 

He said the expert panel will arrive in the city of Mudanjiang soon to find out the cause and nature of the floating organism and see whether it affects the local water quality.

 

Two scientists from the provincial capital Harbin are ready to apply for an in-depth research project in this field.

 

The two scientists, Prof. Guan Kezhi from the Heilongjiang Provincial Environmental Science Research Institute and Prof. Ma Fang from the Harbin Institute of Technology, plan to study the nature of the aquatic fungus found in Mudanjiang, as well as its habitat and how it reproduces, Guan told Xinhua in an exclusive interview Friday.

 

Guan said the fungus reminded him of a similar yellow, sticky mass of flocs reported in the Qiqihar section of the Nenjiang River in the 1960s. "The flocs were believed to be a kind of aquatic fungus, too. A huge number of river fish suffocated to death because the fungus blocked their gills and reproduced fast enough to exhaust oxygen in the water."

 

Floating organisms were detected at a water supply source in Mudanjiang on Feb. 19 and were confirmed to be a kind of lower aquatic fungus that usually floats in water or clings to the riverbed or other objects, very often an indicator of poor water quality.

 

Experts have attributed the mass growth of the fungus to discharge of industrial and household waste water by the neighboring city of Hailin into the Hailang River, a tributary of the Mudanjiang River.

 

The locals have built three nets in the Hailang to block the aquatic organism.

 

The fungus has not caused a much-feared water cutoff by Friday, and the city government of Mudanjiang has taken measures to ensure drinking water safety.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)