The village that's too scared to drink

At least 200 villagers living next to a poisoned river say they have been left to drink polluted water while people living on the opposite bank are being told their drinking water is contaminated and they must drink bottled water only.

The allegation came as authorities in Guangxi autonomous region tried to show it was reacting swiftly to one of the worst toxic spills on the mainland in decades.

And Guangxi's Communist Party chief, Guo Shengkun, promised to severely crack down on polluters, clean up the environment and not to let anyone drink a drop of contaminated water.

Hechi authorities insisted that only two villages were affected by the spill, which saw as much as 20 tonnes of cadmium, a carcinogenic metal, discharged into the Longjiang nearly 20 days ago.

The 220 villagers in Laren and Guangxia in Yizhou, which is under Hechi's jurisdiction, have been living on bottled water provided free of charge by Hechi authorities for at least two weeks.

Just across the river, the 200 residents of Beiji village have received only a written warning of the contamination. According to the notice, issued by Hechi's centre for disease control on January 23, villagers should not drink water from the river, the Longjiang, following contamination by unspecific heavy metals.

Beiji residents said they were sent the notice after Yizhou environmental officials took away samples of drinking water for tests before the Lunar New Year, which began on January 23.