Residents queuing yesterday for water at lower floors of buildings.

One local news reporter told the Beijing News that the incident has caused panic among residents. Though there has been no offensive smells, large numbers of fish and shrimps have died. Many residents waded into the river to retrieve the dead fish. Some suspected chemical pollution or even that the incident heralded an earthquake.

Xu Mengjia, secretary of Ya'an Party Committee and Director of the standing committee of Ya'an People's Congress, offered a sincere apology to local residents on behalf of Ya'an Party Committee and Government for the inconvenience caused by the suspended supply of tap water.

Xu anticipated that there will be a significant improvement in water quality by the day after tomorrow. The domestic water supply company has re-started temporary and intermittent water supplies water for lower floors of buildings.

Xu also explained that public concern about the cause of death of fish and other aquatic creatures was unscientific. Analysis had showed that the deaths were caused by a drop in the amount of oxygen in the river water rather than chemical or heavy metal pollution.

Xu also said that this was an emergency public sanitation incident which had revealed government shortcomings in the management and coordination of emergencies.