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Five t of absorbent carbon delivered from China to clean Angara

The carbon will be placed in special cassettes directly on the water intake in the city of Svirsk

IRKUTSK, April 28 (Itar-Tass) —— Five tonnes of absorbent carbon are delivered by plane from China to Irkutsk on Saturday morning to remove the contamination from the Angara River near the Cheremkhovo water intake, where diesel fuel spilled on Wednesday evening.

The batch of carbon will be delivered to the site by Saturday afternoon, the Irkutsk Region’s Minister of Housing, Energy and Transport, Pyotr Voronin, told Itar-Tass.

According to the regional government's press service, the agreement with the Chinese Environmental Protection Ministry was concluded by the Baikal region's Governor Dmitry Mezentsev on Friday.

The carbon will be placed in special cassettes directly on the water intake in the city of Svirsk and also scattered on the river surface.

The state of emergency remains in force in the Cheremkhovo district, the Irkutsk Region.

Water supply has been halted since Wednesday to Cheremkhovo, Svirsk and the village of Mikhailovka, a total of more than 77,500 people. Forty tonnes of water in bottles are supplied to the residential sites every day, and water is also delivered there in tank vehicles.

On Wednesday, damage done when fuel was illegally siphoned at the Rosrezerv Pribaikalye facilities in the city of Usol-Sibirskoye caused leakage of about 44 tonnes of diesel fuel into the Angara. The oil spill reached the Cheremkhovo water intake site.

A hundred people with the use of 44 units of special equipment are working on the Angara to remove the contamination. According to the federal public health control agency (Rospotrebnadzor), concentration of oil products at the water intake site on Friday was three times higher than the safe level.