Beijing's drinking water quality questioned

INTRO

When Handan deals with the chemical disaster, Beijing residents have been stunned by a new report calling into question the safety of their drinking water.

The government says it plans to release water quality data regularly online, beginning later this month...

But water quality researchers in the capital say they haven't drunk the local tap water for twenty years. CNC met them, to find out why...

Li Fuxing and Zhao Feihong both work at Beijing's Public Heath Institute of Drinking Water.

The couple made headlines, after claiming they haven't drunk tap water for twenty years - only mineral water.

The report sparked public controversy, partly due to their job at the quality watchdog.

Our correspondent met the couple at their office, where they explained that while Beijing's tap water is safe to drink, its decline in quality as a result of rapid urbanization, can't be ignored.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) ZHAO FEIHONG, Water quality researcher:

"The organic pollutants in tap water, we call it total organic carbon, has been increasing every year through our examinations of the total organic carbon index."

The couple's concern against tap water is also from the water processing and supply chains.

SOUNDBITE (CHINESE) LI FUXING, Water quality researcher:

"The processing procedure leaves in chemical residues... But so far, it's hard to tell their impact on our health."

Cancer is now the biggest cause of death in China - especially, in cities.

A recent national survey found cancer killed more people in the country's rapidly expanding urban areas - due to increasingly unhealthy lifestyles... As well as increasingly polluted air - and water.

Zhao, Li's wife, says though Beijing's tap water processing facility is of a leading global standard and able to produce clean water... The water is still prone to contamination, in dirty pipelines.

But the response from Beijing's water supplier, adds more confusion.

According to them, the city's tap water meets all 106 national standards, and it's water quality is the best in the country.

Who's to believe? It's still a question.

But a new policy in place next week is hoped to offer people more material from which to draw their own conclusions...

Starting from January 15, the local government will publish water quality data online - after doing the same, with air pollution.

In the hope of giving more reassurance, to the capital's more than 20 million residents.