HARBIN, Nov 25: Millions of residents in China’s Harbin city endured their third full day without running water on Friday due to a toxic chemical spill, as concerns grew over the long-term impact of the disaster.

Harbin’s taps remained turned off as an 80-kilometre slick of the carcinogen benzene and nitrobenzene that was 33 times above national safety levels flowed slowly through the city along the partially frozen Songhua river.

While the government tried to reassure Harbin’s 3.8 million urban residents that water supplies would resume quickly and safely, many people were still evacuating the city and engineers were continuing to sink dozens of wells.

Millions of bottles of water were also being trucked in to replenish supermarket and shop shelves.

The slick reached Harbin, the industrial capital of Heilongjiang province in China’s far northeast, on Thursday morning after taking 11 days to flow 380kms down the Songhua from the spill site in neighbouring Jilin province.

The spill occurred after an explosion at the PetroChina chemical factory on Nov 13 in Jilin city.

Beijing indicated its resolve to handle the incident seriously by sending a work group, including disciplinary officials, to Harbin to investigate the disaster.

“The presence of disciplinary officials in the team indicates punishment of irresponsible acts are on the way,” it said.

VILLAGERS UNAWARE: Residents of villages and towns that lie along the Songhua between Jilin and Harbin said on Friday they had never been told about the pollution and were still eating fish from the river.