A total of 1,200 tons of active carbon absorbent arrived in this capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on Friday to purify nitrobenzene pollutants floating on the Songhua River, the city's main source of drinking water.

Harbin, which is under a four-day water supply cut-off, sent out a message on Thursday that it was in need of 1,400 tons of active carbon to treat undissolvable nitrobenzene flowing down the upper reaches of the 1,897-km-long Songhua River in the territory of neighboring Jilin Province.

The absorbent was sent from Hebei and Shanxi provinces in north China and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region in northwest China.

"This came just in time," said Zhang Zuoji, governor of Heilongjiang, when shaking hands with a truck driver, who transported the first shipment of active carbon arriving in Harbin from Tangshan, Hebei Province, Friday afternoon.

There are more shipments on the way from Shanghai and Shanxi. The Ministry of Railways has arranged special cargo trains to ensure a timely transportation to Harbin.

The toxic content in the water is declining gradually after days of sedimentation. According to reports from Sifangtai Water Monitoring Station, where the city's water intake facility is located, the density of benzene subsided to 0.0052 mg/L at 13:00 p.m. Friday, which falls under the national safety standards. The density of nitrobenzene, however, was 0.3161 mg/L, still 17.59 times higher than the safety standard.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2005)