MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) - Water samples have shown that the chemical spill carried by China's Songhua River will reach the Russian Amur River in the Far East within two-three days, the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources said Monday.
"The samples taken by the Teutonic and Geophysics Institute of Khabarovsk [Russia's Far Eastern port] have revealed that the bulk of polluted water will enter the Amur and reach Russian cities and towns within the next two or three days," the ministry's press release said.
The latest samples were taken Sunday after an explosion at a petrochemical plant in China on November 13 released about 100 metric tons of chemicals into the Songhua, a tributary of the Amur.
"The authorities of the Jewish Autonomy and the Khabarovsk Territory have taken precautions to reduce the environmental impact of the accident to the minimum and prevent its negative effect on human health," the deputy minister, Oleg Mitvol, is cited in the press release as saying.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry reported earlier that the toxic spill could reach the Jewish Autonomy by December 6-7, Khabarovsk by December 10-12, and the city of Komsomolsk-on-Amur by December 13-15.
The ministry said the 100km (62 miles) spill had passed the Chinese city of Harbin and was approaching the Chinese town of Mulan 580km (360 miles) away from the mouth of the Songhua, with the current of about 2 km/h.
