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Hangzhou Chemical Spill Causes Panic-Buying Of Bottled Water

Hangzhou city residents panic-buying bottled water after a local river and water source is contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

Hangzhou city residents began panic-buying bottled water on the morning of the 6th, with several large supermarekts running out of stock.

From QQ:

Hangzhou residents panic-buy bottled water due to contaminated water, several supermarkets out of stock

An vehicle accident that occurred on the evening of the 4th in Jiande county of Hangzhou city caused phenol/carbolic acid to leak into the Xin’an River, resulting in water contamination. Hangzhou residents started panic-buying bottled water starting on the morning of the 6th, with several large supermarkets temporarily running out of stock.

On the morning of the 6th at around 10am, this reporter saw at the Wu Mart supermarket residents buying five to six cases of water at a time, and that the shelf for the 6.9 yuan per bottle 4-liter pack of bottled mineral water was already sold out and barren. A supermarket clerk told this reporter that within three hours of opening that morning, all 4 liter 4 bottle packs totaling 150 cases of bottled mineral water had been sold. “We’re a large supermarket, with ample inventory, and normally it can take a week to sell this much water.

From NetEase:

Phenol drains into and pollutes Xin’an River, Hangzhou city residents panic-buy bottled water

June 4th night, a tanker truck carrying the chemical phenol [carbolic acid] had a rear-end accident at the Xin’an River highway exit, and approximately 20 tons of phenol leaked into the Xin’an River through ground water runoff. Since the Xin’an River is an important upstream source of drinking water for Hangzhou city, this has greatly affected the usable water for downstream residents.

Hangzhou city residents panic-buying bottled water after a local river and water source is contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, city residents panic-buying bottled water in various Hangzhou supermarkets. According to information, at around 10:55 on the night of June 4th, a tanker loaded with chemical phenol with the vehicle license plate 浙AM8993 in transit from Shanghai Gao Qiao chemical plant to Longyou Hong Yun chemical plant had a rear-end accident while passing the Hangxinjing expressway exit (S31 heading towards Longyou 48 kilometers + 200 meters marker), resulting in some phenol leaking out. Due to there being heavy rains at the time of the incident, some of the leaked phenol drained into the Xin’an River along with the rainwater, causing contamination to a portion of the body of water.

Hangzhou city residents panic-buying bottled water after a local river and water source is contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, city residents panic-buying bottled water in various Hangzhou supermarkets. At present, various Hangzhou city emergency response work is underway, with the Environmental Protection Department monitoring changes in the water quality of the Xin’an River as well as publicizing such developments. According to water quality testing results at the Hangzhou city environmental monitoring center, as of 8pm on the 5th, the water quality of the water supplied by the Hangzhou water plant has not been affected and can be used as normal.

Empty supermarket shelves following Hangzhou city residents scrambling to buy bottled water upon news of a local river and water source becoming contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, the shelves for drinking water at the Hangzhou Century Mart are completely empty. At present, the various water plants in Hangzhou are rushing to stock up on water, running at full-capacity; Request that the general public seize the opportunity to use various containers to stock up on water as much as possible. At the same time, to protect the public’s health, request that city residents and businesses use water in accordance with forecasts.

Hangzhou city residents panic-buying bottled water after a local river and water source is contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, city residents panic-buying bottled water in various Hangzhou supermarkets.

Hangzhou city residents panic-buying bottled water after a local river and water source is contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, city residents panic-buying bottled water in various Hangzhou supermarkets.

Empty supermarket shelves following Hangzhou city residents scrambling to buy bottled water upon news of a local river and water source becoming contaminated with phenol/carbolic acid.

June 6th, the shelves for drinking water at the Hangzhou Century Mart are completely empty.

Comments from QQ:

腾讯网友 张良:

Countrymen, are you all really incapable of changing… If there really is no more water, you can move the entire Yangtze to your house and you’d still die of thirst!

腾讯网友 SWL:

Panic-buying this, panic-buying that, Chinese people are always doing this, chaos every time there is a slight disturbance, each person never stopping to think for a moment.

腾讯网友 Chaos木屋:

25 tons of phenol, so avoid drinking the water these next few days if you can. Please don’t use the tone of “Chinese people, Chinese people” when you talk [criticize]. Before you do so, first stop and think for a moment yourself that the Hanzi [Chinese characters] you are typing will probably only be seen by your fellow countrymen in the country. I hope the people of Hangzhou can get through this.

腾讯网友 沙鹰:

Such a large accident and the only thing reported is panic-buying in supermarkets… So lacking/pathetic [in news reporting].

腾讯杭州市网友 蝌蚪:

When the water is contaminated and it is unsafe for the body, there’s nothing wrong with stocking up on water. This is completely different from the panic-buying of salt. The accident and emergency command group called for residents to stock up on water. River water flows [is not stagnant] and it will just be a few days time before the quality of the water in the river is renewed and there is no more risk to human health. Don’t immediately think others are idiots the moment you see a rush on something, or you might find out in the end that you are the idiot.

杭州市 winter:

Did this really happen? I’m also in Hangzhou, but I haven’t heard of it…sigh, these days the number of contaminated/polluted things we eat are many, a few mouthfuls of water won’t matter… I haven’t gone to stock up on water…

腾讯杭州市网友 蔷薇:

There’s no need to panic-buy, just stock up on enough drinking water for a few days. Power-outages are easy to deal with, but water-outages are difficult to bear.

腾讯网友 ___繁花。落:

Haha…after panic buying water, they’re not afraid of being laughed to death.

腾讯杭州市网友 jm:

The root problem is the severity of the accident, why talk about the ordinary common people buying water? The ordinary common people have their freedom. The problem is the loss of faith/trust. Instead of holding those responsible for the accident and ridiculing them, you ridicule the ordinary common people for protecting themselves?

腾讯杭州市网友 /yl疯丫头:

What’s there to panic-buy, was panic-buying salt not enough!?! When these things happen, those who have headaches are the government leaders. Us ordinary common people should stop worrying so much!!!

Comments from NetEase:

网易上海市网友:

Those panic-buying water are the same as those who were panic-buying salt last time.

网易黑龙江省网友:

Poisonous rice, poisonous milk, poisonous ginger, poisonous oil, poisonous melons, poisonous meat…have all been experienced before, so what’s to be scared of?

网易上海市网友:

Wanting to water to drink after eating too much salt.

网易浙江省嘉兴市网友:

This incident has truly given mineral spring water producers an deeply memorable lesson!! Next time there is a problem with sales, hire someone to go pollute/contaminate the water source.

网易广东省广州市网友:

Low-level people will never say one thing: Who is responsible for this leak??!!! They will only know how to put up with adversity, upon being harmed, first go buy water in self-protection. Hehe~ the quality of a people, forever shouldering such a heavy burden!!

网易福建省福州市网友:

Everything in China is poisonous, so why aren’t people rushing out to buy those things?

网易浙江省杭州市网友:

The salt panic was indeed city residents overreacting. However with this water panic incident, other cities may not necessarily know the actual circumstances, that after the news came out on the 6th, it was kept in the headlines throughout Hangzhou city to have city residents stock up on water, and that’s why there was a large rush of people buying water. Afterward, the market ran out of inventory, and on the 7th news was immediately released that [the water] is now safe, and that there was no more need to rush to go buy water.

网易浙江省杭州市网友:

These days the news and media are basically all nonsense, with the media being the hands behind both the panic-buying of salt and panic-buying of water. Afterwards, various [bottled] water producers will given some money to certain garbage reporters [here written as a pun with “whores”].

网易陕西省榆林市网友:

This is all about character [level of sophistication], character. With the salt panic still fresh in everyone’s mind, now there is panic-buying of water. Truly ignorant SBs.

When your normal supply is contaminated. Personals @ chinaSMACK.

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Written by Fauna

Fauna is a mysterious young Shanghainese girl who lives in the only place a Shanghainese person would ever want to live: Shanghai. In mid-2008, she started chinaSMACK to combine her hobby of browsing Chinese internet forums with her goal of improving her English. Through her tireless translation of popular Chinese internet news and phenomenon, her English has apparently gotten dramatically better. At least, reading and writing-wise. Unfortunately, she's still not confident enough to have written this bio, about herself, by herself.

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