Leak Sparks Panic Buying of Bottled Water

An industrial leak into a local river has sparked panic buying of bottled water in Sichuan. From Xinhua:

Residents have stormed supermarkets, stores and shopping malls for bottled water, despite the government’s efforts to mobilize fire engines to send 375 tonnes of water to communities from Tuesday night through Wednesday morning.

The residue of the Xichuan Minjiang Electrolytic Manganese Plant in the county of Songpan in Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture was washed into rivers by heavy rains last Thursday and contaminated Mianyang’s water source of the Fujiang River, according to a notice posted on the city government’s official website, which was repeatedly broadcast through local media.

Ye Hongjian, general manager of the Mianyang Water Group, said Fujiang River is one of the city’s three major water sources, which accounts for 70 percent of the drinking-water supply for some 300,000 people living the city’s urban areas.

Should residents manage to find bottles of Nongfu Springwater on the store shelves, they can be assured that they do not contain worms, at least according to the water’s distributor. From Global Times.

After allegedly finding “worms and worm eggs” in his bottled water, a Beijing father’s demand for compensation has been flatly turned down as “obviously unreasonable” by one of China’s leading beverage manufacturers ….

A Beijing regional sales manager surnamed Wang from Nongfu Spring visited his store on Friday to inspect the water bottles, Li Xiru [owner of the store where the contaminated bottles were sold] said.

The company then issued a statement on Monday saying both worms and eggs were actually on the outside of the bottles, dismissing Li Zhenwu’s compensation claim.

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