Water supplies were restored on Wednesday to 200,000 people in Shuyang county of east China's Jiangsu Province after being stopped for more than 40 hours because ammonia nitrogen had polluted a local river.

 

An inspection showed that water quality at the local water plant met national standards by 8:25 am on Wednesday, with 0.0099 mg of lead and 0.49 mg ammonia nitrogen per cubic meter of water, the county disease control authorities said.

 

Water supplies were resumed at about 11:00 am on Wednesday, said Li Gongping, deputy head of the county.

 

Harmful substances were detected in the water at 3:00 pm on Monday at the level of 28 mg per cubic meter, about three times the upper limit for drinkable water.

 

An initial investigation indicated the pollution could have been caused by industrial sewage from chemical plants on the upper reaches of the Xinyi River, which originates in Shandong Province.

 

The county government had asked Shandong to help trace the pollution to its source and had arranged alternative supplies from 33 unpolluted wells, in addition to diverting water from Hongze Lake into local water sources to dilute the pollutants.

 

Jiangsu suffered another water crisis at the end of May, when a severe blue-green algae outbreak left tap water undrinkable for a week for half of the 2.3 million residents in Wuxi city.

 

Barely two weeks after the water returned normal, satellite pictures captured on June 15 indicated another algae bloom spanning 800 square kilometers in the central-western and northern parts of the lake, causing widespread concern in cities along China's third largest fresh water lake.

 

Related: Pollution Causes Water Supply Cut for 200,000 Residents

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 4, 2007)