Water in Harbin Harbin, capital city of northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province, is in urgent need of 700 tons of active carbon on standby to purify the contaminated water in Songhua River, sources with the provincial government said on Wednesday.

The water in Songhua River will be purified with the active carbons after the polluting water flow through Harbin, said the expert panel responsible for the water contamination.

The purifying project demands a total of 1,400 tons of active carbons, 700 tons of which are available and another 700 tons are still absent, Wand Shihua, vice mayor of Harbin said, adding the active carbon must be available before Nov. 24.

China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said on Wednesday that the Songhua River in northeast China suffered a major water pollution incident owing to the explosion of a petrochemical plant at the upper reaches.

A spokesman for the Heilongjiang provincial government said on the same day that the poisonous organic substances, mainly high-density benzene and nitrobenzene flowing down the Songhua River, will arrive in this provincial capital early Thursday.