(Bottled water is sold out in almost all supermarkets and shops as Harbin citizens rushed to stock up following the government announcement about a cut in water supply. Photo: China Daily)

Related: NE City Securing Water Safety after Chemical Blast

Water supply will be stopped for four days as of Tuesday evening in this capital city of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province due to possible river contamination caused by a recent chemical plant explosion, the local government announced.

The unexpected stoppage of water supply has sparked a dashing purchase of drinking water in the city of 3 million people, and bottled water, various beverages and even boxed milk were sold out by Tuesday morning in some supermarkets and food stores. 

The municipal government of Harbin said in two separate statements on Monday and Tuesday that the city's water supply system will be shut down for about four days as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, for fears that a chemical plant blast on November 13 may have caused a leakage of poisonous substances into the Songhua River, which supplies water to Harbin.

The blast took place at noon in a workshop of the No. 101 Chemical Plant of Jilin Petrochemical Company based in Jilin City, Jilin Province that borders Heilongjiang, leaving five dead, one missing and more than 60 others injured.

The plant is only a few hundred meters away from the river.

Environment monitoring bureaus said no abnormal signs have been detected in the Harbin section of the river, which flows through the central part of the city, but conceded that there was the possibility of contamination in the future from the upper reaches.

Harbin is located at the middle reaches of the 1,840-km river, which originates in Jilin.

(Residents purchase bottled drinks in supermarkets. Photo: Xinhua)

The Harbin authority has ordered all bathhouses and car-wash facilities to stop operations during the four days and instructed the city's administration of industry and commerce, price bureau and police to strengthen surveillance over the market and maintain social order.

It also advised urban residents, enterprises and government organizations to get well prepared for the water cutoff.

Anxious residents began to throng supermarkets and shops on Monday to buy whatever they could lay their hands on.

"People started to pour in for a large quantity of water in the morning, some even paid 5,000 yuan (625 US dollars) in just one purchase," said a salesperson at a local chain store of Metro Group.

Vehicles kept queuing up in front of a food and beverage wholesale shop despite the manager's announcement that water has been sold out.

(Source: Xinhua)