Authorities in a major mainland city issued emergency orders Thursday to stem panic water-buying after heavy pollution in a lake contaminated drinking supplies for millions of people.The Wuxi city government said it was doing everything it could to rid the Tai Lake of a huge algae bloom that was triggered by the pollution, but in the meantime drastic measures were needed to supply residents with water.
"To rid the water of the odor and taste is a difficult problem for our water- treatment [plants]," it said.
Orders have been issued for more bottled water supplies to be brought in to stop profiteering.
Xinhua News Agency said the price of an 18-liter bottle of water in Wuxi sold for 50 yuan (HK$51.03) Wednesday, more than six times higher than the normal price of eight yuan.
Officials have also ordered the diversion of water from local rivers into Tai Lake, the main source of drinking water for Wuxi, to help wash out the algae.
Residents said the water coming out of taps was green or yellow and left a slimy film on the hands and body when used to wash.
"The tap water is like waste water. It smells so bad that you want to throw up," a downtown shop owner surnamed Li said.
"This is the third day that the water has been like this. If you wash with the water you end up smelling like it."
Stores in the city of five million people in Jiangsu province began rationing sales of bottled water Wednesday, Li said.
Television stations Thursday showed lines of resid
ents buying and carting off bottled water, with many shop shelves already empty.The industrial city on the lower reaches of the Yangtze river relies on the once scenic Tai Lake for its drinking supplies.
Photos showed the lake choked in a thick green-blue muck interspersed with floating garbage.
The lake has been under stress for years as untreated sewage from towns and villages, as well as the region's booming chemical and light manufacturing industries, left its water choked with pollutants.
But conditions for the algae bloom have ripened with the water levels being at their lowest in 50 years due to a lack of rain and high temperatures.
Meanwhile, the inflow from the Yangtze and other rivers has not been strong enough to wash out the pollution.
Officials did not say how long the crisis would last, but Hu Weiping, a biologist with Nanjing Academy of Sciences, told the China News Service that the algae bloom could remain for another four or five months.
Algae blooms threaten most Chinese freshwater lakes and are chiefly caused by untreated sewage and high concentrations of nitrogen, which is a main ingredient in soap powders and fertilizers. More than 70 percent of China's waterways and 90 percent of its underground water are contaminated by pollution.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
