After the lines were cut by heavy-rain-caused mudslides along the upper reaches of Minjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River and a water source for the provincial capital,for more than 24 hours in Chengdu areas, water supply facilities have finally been fixed. Thousands of families in the disaster-hit-province of Sichuan now are able to drink water conveniently.

Sichuan Province, which has been undergoing reconstruction since the devastating earthquake last year, was hit by the downpour lasted from last Tuesday to Friday.

The level of pollution forced three treatment plants in Chengdu that get water from Minjiang River to shut down on Friday afternoon.

It meant supplies were cut to most in the east and west of the city, and only restored around 9 a.m.Sunday, a worker of the Chengdu Waterworks Company, was quoted as saying by Monday’s China Daily.

More than 20 trucks were sent by the firm to collect water from other plants to supply residents.

The upper reaches of Minjiang River are vulnerable to geological disasters, said Fan Xiao, an engineer at Sichuan Geology and Mineral Resource and Exploitation Bureau.

Local authorities are now drawing up new emergency water shortage plans, which will include a measure to take water from Beisha River in Dujiangyan.

Beichuan county, one of the areas worst-hit by the May 12 quake last year, also suffered flooding and mudslides from the storm.

More than 43,600 people from 50 villages were affected, costing the authorities an estimated 100 million yuan (14.6 million U.S. dollars).

Some of the buildings in the zone now regarded as a “Beichuan earthquake relic” and the newly built road to Tangjiashan “quake lake” were also destroyed by the landslides.

Source:Xinhua

Rain pours new misery on areas in SW China – People’s Daily Online.