Team to probe tainted tap water in Hebei

A special task force has been established to investigate contaminated tap water in Guangzong county, Hebei province.

The local government is now using tank trucks to help transport clean water to the affected villages, according to a statement released by Guangzong county government on Sunday.

Meanwhile the county government is constructing temporary water pipelines to supply tap water to every village and seeking experts' suggestions to cope with the polluted pipelines, the county authorities said.

"Although there is no guarantee that tap water will be delivered to each household, every affected village will be outfitted with four to five tap water outlets for residents," authorities said.

The special task force mainly consists of officials and law enforcement from the county's bureaus of agricultural and rural affairs, environmental protection and public security, authorities said.

Late last week, the tap water in 13 villages in Guangzong county was said to be yellow and foaming with a bad smell.

After a thorough investigation, seven villages consisting of 10,020 people have been seriously affected while another six villages with 7,647 residents have been slightly affected, authorities said.

According to The Beijing News, some villagers were reported to have been burned when they used the contaminated tap water to bathe and wash their faces.

An initial investigation indicated that a local electric bicycle factory was the culprit, said authorities.

The factory's technical staff violated relevant rules and regulations and did not close the water injection pipe when they injected tap water into the acid pickling tanks on April 23, authorities said.

The acid then back flowed into water supply pipelines due to the inverted siphon effect after water supply had stopped at 11 pm that day.

Meanwhile, the factory was investigated over the secret installation of valves and hoses to connect with tap water supply pipelines.

The Beijing News reported that the local water supply company does not separate the industrial water supply pipelines from the domestic one due to limited local conditions.

The factory has been shut down for further investigation.

Three suspects have been detained, and the factory's legal representative, surnamed Wang, surrendered himself to police on April 25.