Songhua River Polution and Control

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• Songhua River Polution and Control
• in Harbin,China
• Dr. Wang Binyou
• Professor
• Dept. of Epidemiology
• Harbin Medical University
• China
• wangby_at_public.hr.hl.cn

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Background A massive chemical plant
explosion took place in northeast Chinas Jilin
province on Nov. 13,2005,and caused major
contamination of the 1897 km Songhua River.
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About 100 tons of dangerous chemicals benzene,
nitrobenzene and other toxics to 10 tanker truck
loads was spewed into the river, which supplies
water to Harbin.
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Harbin is a China's biggest cities, capital of
Heilongjiang province.
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Harbin is home to nine million people, including
three million urban residents. Contaminating
water supplies for up to four million people.
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• The Songhua River is a tributary of the Heilong
  River on the border between the Russian Far East
  and China.

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Control measures
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1,The government has launched an emergency plan
to tackle the situation and for water supplies to
be restored.
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2, Supplies were cut off due to pollution of the
Songhua River.
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3, High school and Primary schools were closed.
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4,Hundreds of villagers have been evacuated from
their homes along a river in northeast China
after an explosion at a petrochemical plant
upstream dumped 100 tons of toxic chemicals in
the water
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5, Most of the citizens have stored enough water.
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6,Government have got purified water from other
cities to ensure water supply in the city.
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7, Harbin Supply Drain Co. LTD have Cleaned
up all the water tankers, replaced the old
filtering devices with new ones and put in active
carbon to purify the water.
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8, Two reservoirs upstream discharged an
unusually huge amount of water into the river to
dilute the toxic spill.
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9, The social environment of city was peace.
About 10,000 policemen patrolled the city's
streets.
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• Most residents continued to work and shops and
  restaurants remained open despite water supply
  being cut off.

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10, Local hospitals had stockpiled antidotes to
benzene-related poisoning. The province Governor
ordered hospitals to brace for possible cases of
poisoning, while dozens of wells were dug.
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11, Taught residents to recognize the symptoms of
benzene poisoning, and gave them some advice.
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12, All the city's wells were in operation, and
have drilled 45 more wells to supply water for
the heating system in Harbin, where winter
temperatures can fall below -20oC.
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13, The EPA enhanced monitoring and predict of
the contaminated water.
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14, Suggested the pollution level would drop
significantly by the time it enters Russia,and
reported the water monitoring result to Russia.