Russia and China to drawing up a treaty on cross-border waterways

30-Mar-07

In the event an industrial accident in one country pollutes rivers that flow into the other, Russia and China are drawing up a treaty on cross-border waterways that could determine compensation. This treaty has been inspired by the spill in late 2005, when an accident at a Chinese chemicals plant sent a toxic spill into the Amur river in Russia's Far East, forcing Harbin, the biggest city in China's northeast, to temporarily shut down running water to 3.8 million people. Interestingly, the Songhua basin is home to 70 million people and some 2,000 companies, of which more than 100 are large petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and pulp plants. By comparison, just one million people live in the Russian cities along the Amur.