Gloria Chan F.4B (5)
Maggie So F.4B (25)
1
Gloria Chan F.4B (5)
Maggie So F.4B (25)
2
Gloria Chan F.4B (5)
Maggie So F.4B (25)
3
Gloria Chan (5) 4B
Maggie So (25) 4B
Newspaper Article
Title
Pollution threat cuts off water to 3 million
Name of newspaper South China Morning Post
Date of issue
23rd Novermber,2005
Description of issue
The Heilongjiang Environmental Protection Bureau discovered that the Songhua
River had been contaminated by chemicals released by an explosion at the Jilin
Petroleum and Chemical Company plant in Jilin city last week. The city government
of Harbin, warned of a pollution threat to the water supply, which is drawn from the
Songhua River.
Heilongjiang Vice-Governor Li Zhanshu announced that the main water supply plant
would close at 8 p.m. that night. After that, residents rushing to supermarkets and
stalls to buy water. The government had then allocated water from neighbouring cities.
More than 2,000 tonnes arrived overnight on Monday and the city would also borrow
equipment from the Daqing Oid Field and frill 55 new wells.
From figure 1, we can see that residents of Harbin bring whatever they had to collect
the water from a tanker due to the suspension of water supply from the Songhua river.
Figure 2 illustrates that soldiers were checking bottles of water sent by neighbouring
cities to help Harbin to cope with its difficulties on water supply.
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Explanation of the Issue
The following are the explanation on this issue with graphs.
Supply of water from the Songhua River
As the pollution of the Songhua River which caused by the explosion of a chemical
plate, the Heilongjiang government suspended the water supply from that river until
the chemicals is flowed away in order to safeguard the water safety in its district.
No matter how much did the residents pay, they couldn’t get any water from the
Songhua River. So supply curve lies on the y-axis as shown on the graph.
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Due to the suspension of
water supply from the
government, residents needed
to buy distilled water(bottled
water) or even other drinks
from supermarkets and stores.
As there is no substitute for
water from the Songhua
River, demand for distilled
Demand for distilled water and other drinks
water and other drinks then
increase from D1 to D2.
Demand curve shifts to the
right as illustrated on the
graph.
From the above explanation, as
the demand for distilled water
and other drinks increases, it
will also make a difference in
their quantity and price. We
predict that, when demand
increases, quantity increases
and lead to an increase in price.
The producers may keep on
rising the price because
everyone are willing to get more
distilled water and other drinks.
P2
P1
Q1
Q2
Demand for distilled water and other drinks
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Distilled water
The water supply in Harbin was in a tension after the discovery of the pollution in
Songhua River. The government provided free distilled water to its residents but it
was not enough. This created a queue as shown on figure 1. This created an excess
demand. The neighbouring cities then provided a helping hand to Harbin, which they
sent more bottles of water to them as illustrated in figure 2, so the supply of distilled
water increases and shifts to the right (S2). Due to the increase in supply of distilled
water, the problem was reduced that excess demand for distilled water was reduced as
shown on the graph.
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