BEIJING - China has sent Russia a second batch of activated carbon to help mitigate the effects of a toxic spill in a river flowing towards the border dividing the two countries, the official Xinhua news agency said.
About 400 tonnes out of a total batch of 1,000 tonnes was delivered to Russia's far east city of Khabarovsk on Monday, Xinhua said in a late night report seen on Tuesday.
China had already sent 150 tonnes of carbon, and the remainder will arrive soon, Xinhua said.
An explosion at a chemical plant in China's northeast last month poisoned drinking water for millions and sent a frozen, poisonous slick of benzene heading slowly towards Russia.
"The most concentrated part of the toxic slick has flowed past Khabarovsk," Xinhua said, adding that the concentration of benzene was within safety limits.
China is also providing other technical assistance and has sent scientists to Russia to help deal with the slick, it added.
Khabarovsk, a city of 580,000, had readied alternative water supplies while waiting for the slick to wind its way northeast of Russia's Amur river, reports from Russia said last week.
Another toxic spill that sparked China's second major environmental scare of the winter should be safely diluted before the fouled river water reaches major cities in the south, state media said this week.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
