Toxic metal contamination of a tributary of the Pearl River continues to threaten freshwater supplies for a city of over 3.5 million people in Guangxi as local authorities scramble to prevent carcinogenic cadmium from drifting further downstream, including to Guangdong.
Despite repeated reassurances by Guangxi authorities about the safety of its drinking water, the scare has spread in Liuzhou, one of the biggest cities in the ethnic Zhuang autonomous region, where many residents have been stocking up on bottled water since last week.
The Guangxi environmental protection department said last night seven chemical plant executives had been detained for suspicion of discharging the industrial waste, but provided no further details.
That Guangxi authorities had struggled to locate the source of the massive contamination in the two weeks since it was discovered, has further undermined their credibility, prompting questions about the government's ability to handle the spill.
A toxic slick stretching more than 100 kilometres along the Long River has reached the Nuomitan hydroelectric station, 57 kilometres upstream from Liuzhou, with cadmium levels five times above the national standard for drinking water as of yesterday, Xinhua reported.
Tests conducted yesterday morning showed that cadmium levels within a 16-kilometre radius of the city's main water plant were slightly under the safety limit, officials from the local government's emergency task force told Xinhua.