An explosion at a PetroChina chemicals plant in Jilin province, on 13 November, is feared to have contaminated the Songhua river, which supplies most of the water to the northern city of Harbin, in neighbouring Heilongjiang province. Faced with the panic-buying of bottled water, authorities have taken the step of cutting off the supply of municipal water, which will leave parts of the city - home to nine million people - without water for at least four days. However, they insist that such measures are strictly precautionary, and that the Songhua's water quality is 'normal'. PetroChina has similarly insisted that any liquids released into the river were 'harmless', adding, 'We have our own water treatment plant and won't allow any pollution to be poured into Songhua River'. However, U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch, which acquired Harbin Brewery last year and is a major consumer of the city's water, could not contacted for comment. Meanwhile, environmental officials just across the border in Russia have begun to monitor water content in the Amur river, amid fears that contamination could flow from a China-based tributary.
Significance: Like many other cities in China, Harbin had already been suffering water shortages, caused in this case by the reduced flow of the Songhua - an effect brought on by lower rainfall, deforestation and poor regulation of agricultural water use. Around two-thirds of China's 600 largest cities are reporting shortages, signalling that sufficient water provision will be one of the top challenges ahead for urban planners and policymakers (see China: 1 November 2005: Top Government Officials Warn that China Faces 'Severe and Urgent' Water Crisis). The mainland already has more than 166 cities with a population greater than one million people (compared with nine in the United States), and roughly 24 so-called 'second cities', with more than two million inhabitants. World Bank officials have warned that competing demands could lead to 'a fight between rural interests, urban interests and industrial interests on who gets water in China'.World Markets Analysis
