China cuts off water along poisoned river
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-29 07:31

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said the pollutants could affect 70 Russian cities and villages with a total of more than 1 million residents along the Amur river, including Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000.

The benzene slick was expected to reach Khabarovsk on Dec. 10-12 — or sooner.

Chinese, Russian official met Monday night to discuss how to deal with the contamination, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Zhang Lijun, vice director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration expressed apologies to the Russian Delegation of Khabarovsk Environmental Protection Bureau during their talks in Harbin.

The talks included the impact that the polluted Songhua River will have on the Heilongjiang River, the border of the two nations, and the cooperation that China and Russia will make to monitor and test the quality of their border river.

The official also reported in detail to the delegation the related information of the river pollution, including the sorts of pollutants, the density and the location of the pollution belt.

He said the SEPA will report the latest information concerning the quality of the Songhua River to Russia in line with the instruction of Premier Wen Jiabao.

V. V. Dardiuk, director of the delegation, expressed gratitude toward China's reports and discussed his country's coping measures.

He said Khabarovsk has cooperated with Heilongjiang Province in the border river quality monitoring and testing for four years and believes that the problem will be settled through mutual efforts.