Five-year plan to clean polluted river

BEIJING - China has earmarked 26.6 billion yuan ($4.86 billion) to make water from its recently poisoned Songhua River drinkable by 2010, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

The funds, allocated as part of China's five-year plan for 2006-2010, would be used to treat around 1.4 billion tonnes of waste water a year in Inner Mongolia and Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, through which the Songhua flows, it said.

China aimed to provide safe drinking water for more than 90 per cent of people living close to the river by 2010, it cited the State Administration of Environmental Protection as saying.

The Songhua was poisoned late last year after an explosion at a chemical plant in northeastern China unleashed a toxic spill.

- REUTERS