VLADIVOSTOK, November 29 (RIA Novosti, Anatoly Ilyukhov) - The city of Khabarovsk in the Russian Far East has sufficient water supplies to cope with the threat of a shortage after an industrial accident in neighboring China led to toxic chemicals being dumped into a tributary of the region's main river, a senior official said Tuesday.
Oleg Mitvol, the deputy head of the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources, said: "Schools, enterprises, and other organizations will not be closed when the toxic spill reaches the Amur [River]."
Chemicals, including potentially lethal benzene, spilled into the Songhua River after an accident at a petrochemicals plant in northeastern China on November 13 and are now heading along the Amur toward Khabarovsk, which has a population of about 600,000.
Mitvol said that the situation in Khabarovsk was under control and "everything has been done to prevent an emergency." He added that toxic chemicals should reach Khabarovsk in two to three days, but said there was no reason to panic. Russian experts have said that the contaminated stretch would pass by the city.
Meanwhile, the first 20 metric tons of activated charcoal have been delivered to Khabarovsk as part of a plan to treat water in the Amur.
