Wuxi, Chinese City Of 2.3 Million, Cut Off From Water Supply By Blue-Green Algae & Drought - Reuter

The level of Taihu Lake in Jiangsu province was at its lowest in 50 years and blue-green algae had spread, leaving the water that usually supplied Wuxi undrinkable, Xinhua news agency said.

Panicked Wuxi city residents stripped supermarkets clean of bottled water and small shops raised prices, local newspapers reported.

The volatile mix of pollution, thirsty citizens and health worries echoed a panic in late 2005, when millions of residents of Harbin in northeast China had tap water cut off for weeks after a toxic spill in the Songhua River affected drinking water.

China's leaders have promised to clean up the country's air and water, but decades of unchecked growth and rickety enforcement have left many places vulnerable to pollution outbreaks. Officials in Wuxi, a thriving Jiangsu industrial and tourism centre with an urban population of more than 2.3 million, quickly sought to ward off panic.

EDIT

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/42304/story.htm

According to our local paper the price of bottled water had jumped from $1.50 to $6.50 for a 2 gallon bottle,and the local Walmart was limiting ustomers to 24 bottles each.

Source: Reuters

Algae on China lake improving but slick remains
02 Jun 2007 02:55:52 GMT
Source: Reuters

BEIJING, June 2 (Reuters) - Chinese officials said water quality
was improving in the country's third-largest lake, choked by a
polluted slick of algae, but experts warned that tap water in the
area was still not safe, state media reported on Saturday.

Taihu Lake, in the southern province of Jiangsu, has been struck
by a foul-smelling canopy of algae that left tap water undrinkable
for more than 2.3 million residents of nearby Wuxi and prompted
a run on bottled water at local supermarkets.

-snip-

Residents said the government was telling them it was safe to
drink boiled water, but complained that it still had an unappealing
green film on top.

Environment experts said it was unlikely to be fit to drink.

"Although quality of the water supply has improved significantly
on Friday and now it is safe for washing hands or clothes, it still
takes some time to become drinkable," the newspaper quoted
Zhang Xiaojian, an environment specialist at Tsinghua University
in Beijing, as saying.

-snip-

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