From the Financial Times (link)
Beijing said on Thursday it would commit Rmb10bn ($1.2bn) towards cleaning up last year’s chemical spill in the northeastern Songhua River, one of the worst environmental disasters in China since the founding of the communist state in 1949.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, approved a plan for the next five years to treat and monitor water in the river, which was contaminated when a petrochemical plant in Jilin province exploded last November, discharging hazardous amounts of benzene into the waterway.
The spill caused suspension of water supply to the northern city of Harbin for several days and developed into an international incident as the slick flowed into Russia’s Amur River.
