Pig waste avalanche blocks China town taps

BEIJING (Reuters) - Taps were turned back on in a rural area of southwest China this week after pig excrement flooded a local river and forced water supplies to shut down for nearly a week, domestic media said.

More than 7,000 people in Renshou county, Sichuan province, went six days without running water after the waste from a local pig farm flowed directly into the Tiaodeng River on Dec. 8, the news Web site www.sina.com said, citing a Sichuan-based newspaper report.

"The water was murky and greyish-black, with white foam floating on the surface of the river and it gave off a stench," the report said of the defiled stretch of the Tiaodeng.

The report did not say what happened further downstream.

In late November, a toxic slick on a northeast river caused by an explosion at chemical plant led to the shutdown of water supplies to millions of people downstream.

Chinese environment officials have said the density of pollution on the Songhua river has declined sharply, but the slick is still slowing flowing towards a wary Russia.