Several dozen animals have died and villagers are suffering nausea and dizziness after a massive spill of cyanide into the Luo River in Henan province.
Although no one had died from the spill, local residents said the chemical had contaminated water sources.
Local residents from Xinghua township, about 3km away from where a lorry overloaded with sodium cyanide overturned and poured 11 tonnes of poison into the river a week ago, said they had to fetch potable water from several kilometres away as all the wells in the area were contaminated.
Mainland media yesterday were eager to play down the possible impact on human health and local ecology by stressing the drinking water in the area was not affected. It said the poison had been restricted to a stretch just a few kilometres long and the lower reaches of the Luo River were not seriously polluted.
But a Xinghua farmer surnamed Li said local villagers had to build pipes to divert water from the mountain as they could no longer use the underground water source.
'We cannot use well water now and we have to get water from a pool at the other end of the village. The water there is still clean because it is from the mountain,' she said. Villagers were more cautious when washing vegetables, but otherwise the area had remained calm.
An official in Xinghua said more than 100,000 people from several dozen villages along the river were affected. The villages had arranged their own vehicles to deliver water from other river tributaries.