Compiled by Caijing staff

Public water supplies were temporarily cut off for more than 200,000 people along the Han River in central China’s Hubei Province after a pollution incident that turned the water “red and bubbly,” the local newspaper Chutian Metropolis Daily reported February 26.

Five schools were temporarily closed by the outage, which affected farms as well as residents in more than 10 towns, the city of Qianjiang and Jianli County. The pollution also raised concerns about a water project to feed Beijing and other northern regions, which will tap the Han through a cross-country water diversion system.

The source of the pollution remains unclear, although some speculated that a sudden rise in water temperatures caused garbage in the river to putrefy.

The pollution was first observed at the Jainli water treatment plant February 24 by a worker who reported a water sample appeared “unusually red and bubbly,” the newspaper reported.

Local environmental protection officials ordered all treatment plants in the area to turn off taps until the water’s safety could be proven by official tests.

Water was diverted from other areas to dry communities, and service had been partially restored as of February 27, a local official told Caijing.

Environmental officials followed the pollution’s trail up the Han to three tributaries -- the Dongjing, Tianguan and Xinglong rivers.

The Han is the longest tributary of the Yangtze River, stretching more than 1,532 kilometers from northwest Shanxi Province to join the Yangtze in Hubei.

The Han also feeds the Danjiangkou Reservoir, one of the largest in Asia and a source of China’s South-to-North Water Diversion system, which carries the river’s water from Danjiangkou northward to the drought-prone provinces of Henan and Hebei, as well as Beijing.

The National Development and Reform Commission recently approved a water treatment project for a Hubei section of the Han. Funded by the World Bank, the project includes wastewater treatment, industrial pollution inspection and support for relevant institutions.

Serious water pollution incidents have increased in recent years in China, affecting numerous rivers and lakes. An official report said 27 percent of the water in China’s seven major water systems failed to meet basic standards in 2006. A World Bank report said water pollution costs China’s economy 147 billion yuan annually.

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Special report: Perilous Tide