Updating the Chinese Chemical Spill, Part 2

There will be no clean water in Harbin until Sunday. The city of 3.8 million people cannot draw water from the Songhua River because of a massive chemical spill that occurred upstream nearly two weeks ago (though the exact date is disputed between November 3 and November 13).

China has been criticized by environmentalists for its slow response to the disaster and is also under pressure from neighboring Russia and the United Nations to release more information about the spill.

Wen's unannounced visit appeared to be meant both as a morale boost to government workers who have been struggling to supply residents with water by truck in subfreezing weather and a warning to local authorities to do all they can to help the public. Local authorities have been criticized already for reacting too slowly to the chemical plant explosion and delaying disclosure to the public.

The premier visited the Harbin No. 3 Water Filtration Plant, where 300 paramilitary police were delivering tons of carbon to filter water from the Songhua River once it is declared safe to use.

"Your work now is work to protect the safety of the masses' drinking water. Thank you, everyone!" Wen told the troops outside the plant, who cheered. "Make the masses' water completely safe, and we must not allow the masses to be short of water."

The disaster is an embarrassment for the government of President Hu Jintao, which has promised to focus on cleaning up environmental damage from 25 years of breakneck economic growth and to look after the well-being of ordinary Chinese.

You want to start cleaning up the environmental damage, start with the government itself. There's nothing nearly as toxic as a totalitarian government that restricts the free flow of information. While a toxic spill can occur anywhere in the world, it was the restriction on the information about the accident that really should get people upset.

And for the government to say that the corporation was responsible for the disaster is just total BS. This isn't a corporation in the American sense of the word. This wasn't an independent corporation that answers to shareholders like Boeing or GE. The corporation involved is a state owned and run company. The company answers directly to the government.

The plant was run by a subsidiary of China's biggest oil company, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., which issued an apology this week and sent executives to help dig wells in Harbin.

That's why my initial comments on the subject a few days ago raised the spectre of Chernobyl. The Chinese government purposefully restricted the information to its people, and put the lives of millions at stake because they didn't want people to know what happened at one of its factories.

UPDATE:
The spill may affect the ecosystem and food chain. No kidding. The first sign of trouble in the Songhua River was the stench of dead fish. Of course this is going to affect the ecosystem for years to come. And the spill means exposure to an increased risk of cancer.