Many islanders in Jiamusi, the second largest city on the lower reaches of the Songhua River, have left their homes since the front of the pollution slick reached the city Tuesday night.

The front of the pollution spill belt was at Aoqi town, some 30 kilometers from the city proper, Wednesday morning, said the environment protection bureau of Heilongjiang Province.

By Tuesday evening, nearly half of all the 279 households on Liushu (Willow) Island, the most populous island in Jiamusi, had been temporarily evacuated. Families that choose to stay behind have stored five to 10 tons of clean water in every house, enough to sustain for a month.

As the pollution belt flows further northward, the density of toxic chemicals has also reduced. The provincial environment watchdog said nitrobenzene density at the Dalai monitoring post in Jiamusi measured 0.0340 mg per liter at 0:00 AM Wednesday, twice the normal density, and no benzene was detected.

As of 2:00 AM Wednesday, no nitrobenzene or benzene was detected at a monitoring station in the city's interior region.

The city has built up abundant reserves of bottled water and other daily supplies to meet the people's need. Prices are more or less the same as three weeks ago.

(Xinhua News Agency December 7, 2005)