Drinking water supplies have stabilized in the northeastern Chinese city of Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province, where reported river pollution caused panic-buying of bottled water, a local official said on Thursday.

A total of 15,521 boxes of bottled water were sold in Mudanjiang on Tuesday, seven times more than usual. But on Wednesday, sales volumes dropped to 5,562 boxes, Wang Shuyin, spokesman and secretary-general for the Mudanjiang municipal government, told a press conference.

"The situation has stabilized," Wang said.

The local environmental watchdog has held three enterprises accountable for polluting a major water source in the city. Their operations were suspended on Thursday.

Environment administrations of Mudanjiang and neighboring Hailin City have investigated 23 industrial enterprises along the Hailang River, a major source of water for Mudanjiang, and found that three of them were discharging large amounts of pollutants into the water, well above the national safety level.

Two of the enterprises named were Hailin Xueyuan Distillery, the brewery for Hailin Beer, and a butchery belonging to Hailin Food Company.

Experts said the distillery dumped large amounts of grain into the river, which fermented and accelerated, coupled with warmer temperatures recently, the multiplication of certain organisms.

Experts confirmed on Thursday that the organisms in the river were a type of aquatic fungus, whose appearance indicates pollution.

Mudanjiang's water source is located at the lower reaches of the Hailang River, a tributary of the Mudanjiang River. Local people have built three nets in Hailang River to block the fungus, which was detected on February 19.

The local water supply corporation has sterilized its running water with chlorine. Tap water in the city is safe to drink, experts said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 24, 2006)