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. 4 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. 5 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 6 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. 7