BEIJING - A toxic spill in north China has contaminated water supplies for 50,000 people and poses a threat to a reservoir supplying millions more, state media reported on Friday.
Water pollution has become a major national concern since a blast at a chemical plant in November released a toxic slick into the Songhua river, affecting drinking water supplies to millions in the northeast.
Sixty tons of coal tar carried by an overturned truck spilled into the Dasha river in the northern province of Shanxi on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
"The spill, moving at about one km per hour, is approaching the Wangkuai reservoir about 70 km from the accident site," Xinhua said, quoted environmental protection officials.
The Wangkuai is one of two key reservoirs supplying water to 10 million people in Baoding, a city in neighbouring Hebei province.
The spill had already reached Hebei's Fuping county on Tuesday, Xinhua said, contaminating water supplies for 50,000 people.
Clean-up efforts, initially delayed by the truck driver's cover-up of the toxic cargo, had included the building of 51 dams to intercept the coal tar "so as to win time for treating polluted water", Xinhua said.
A chemical plant blast in China's booming eastern province of Zhejiang injured one person and left two missing, Xinhua said in a separate report.
A 38-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman were missing after "numerous explosions" occurred on Thursday at the Longxin Chemical Plant, which primarily produces hydrogen peroxide, Xinhua said. Another person had been injured.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
