HARBIN: Experts confirmed that the micro-organism that was found in a large quantity near the water source of the city of Mudanjiang in Northeast China is an aquatic fungus.

An inquiry team consisting of experts from the provincial environmental protection, public security, health and production safety departments are trying to determine who should be held responsible.

Preliminary investigation suggests that the sudden accumulation of the fungus, which blocked the water inlet of a water plant on Sunday, was caused by waste water discharged from Hailin, a city on the upper reaches of the Hailang River, where the inlet is found.

The yellow, sticky, floccus-like micro-organism usually grows in sewage, clinging to floating objects in water. A wild growth of the fungus indicates deteriorated water conditions. The fungus formed a 20-kilometre belt in the Hailang River, local sources said.

Besides a wine plant in Hailin, which was found to have dumped loads of lees into the river, two other companies a beer brewery and a packing house were ordered to suspend operations on Friday because of the discharging pollutants, said Wang Shuyin, a spokesman for the local government.

Local government have mobilized more than 600 people to clean up the fungus. Three dams were built to block it from floating downstream, Wang said.

Ma Fang, an expert from Harbin Institute of Technology, said it was a "mass-reproduced aquatic micro-organism event" in an interview with China Central Television.

"The wine plant was indeed a pollutant source, but there must be other factors behind the fungus growth," Ma was quoted as saying.

Source: China Daily