"In order to safeguard water safety in the urban districts, the municipal government has decided to provisionally stop supplying water to the public water network," the government of Harbin city, the capital of the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, said in a statement.

The order follows a November 13 explosion at a petrochemical plant in Jilin city, 380 kilometers (230 miles) up the Songhua river from Harbin.

The explosion killed at least five people and resulted in the temporary evacuation of tens of thousands of others who were forced to flee a cloud of toxic smoke.

"At present there is no sign of any abnormalities along the Songhua river in the Harbin section, but the environmental protection agency expects that up-river pollution could appear in the coming days," the government said.

Government officials, when contacted by phone, refused to say how many people would be affected by the water stoppage, only saying that the supply would be cut off for four days beginning at 8:00 pm Tuesday.

Harbin is a city of more than eight million people but only some three million people live in the city's urban districts.

Locals aware of the pending water stoppage began hoarding water and food as early as Sunday, amid government pronouncements telling people to stay calm and "stop listening to rumors," state press reports said.

"City industry and commerce bureaus, police and other departments must strengthen supervision and management of markets and ensure market and social order," the local government statement said.

The government was also forced to quell wild rumors that Harbin was going to be hit by an earthquake, state press said, a reflection of both the panic in the city and the lack of timely information by authorities.

"The talk that Harbin will be hit by an earthquake in the coming days is purely rumor -- residents should not worry, there is no need to panic," a Heilongjiang seismological bureau spokesman told a government-run news website.

"There is completely no need to buy up and hoard food items, or set up tents to live outside."

Local supermarkets reported all their bottled water was quickly sold out. State media showed pictures of empty shelves and shoppers hoarding water and soft drinks.

The city has bought 1,500 tons of bottled water from nearby cities to meet the shortage, Xinhua news agency said late Tuesday.

Government offices, factories, enterprises and institutes such as hospitals and schools were also told to ensure their water storage facilities were full before the stoppage began.

The government also put in place an emergency plan to divert commercially available water from surrounding cities and regions, Xinhua said.

The local Harbin government is inspecting the city's 386 wells to see how many can provide water that is clean enough for household use.

The blast at the Jilin Petroleum and Chemical Company, which is located on the banks of the Songhua river, was due to a failure by workers to shut a gas valve in a timely manner.

This led to exceedingly high temperatures setting off a series of explosions that levelled two of the plant's fuel towers where the highly flammable gas benzene was being processed, Xinhua said.

Over 60 people were injured in the blast, with 23 still in hospital. After allowing the evacuees to return, the government gave no indication in the state press that the accident may have polluted the river.

The local government said Tuesday its health bureau had begun conducting twice-daily testing of bottled and stored water in public places such as schools and government buildings, Xinhua reported.

earlier related report
DuPont To Build One Billion Dollar Plant In Southern China
Beijing (AFP) Nov 22 -- US chemical giant DuPont said Tuesday it will build a one billion dollar titanium dioxide plant in southern China in what will be the company's largest single investment project outside the United States.

The wholly owned venture, to be located in Dongying city in east China's Shandong province, will have an initial annual capacity of 200,000 tons of Titanium dioxide when it is completed in 2010, the company said in a statement.

The plant will hire about 350 workers, most of whom will be employed locally, it said.

Titanium dioxide is a white pigment widely used in the coatings, plastics and paper industries.

DuPont said the one billion dollar sum included the initial DuPont investment, facilities installed by the city and integrated suppliers to the plant, and eventual expansion of the original facility.

"The plant will... be the companys largest single investment project outside the United States," the statement said.

DuPont has also invested in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Changshu and it is now ahead of its previously announced plan to double the company's investment in China by 2010.

"Reaching this stage further demonstrates our companys commitment to China and to serving our customers in China, Asia and worldwide," DuPont's Greater China president, Tom Powell, said in the statement.

Senior DuPont and Dongying government officials gathered in the city to sign the project agreement on Monday.

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