Sewage in the Pipes?! Hangzhou’s Tap Water Disaster Exposed

Since yesterday, the entire city has been gripped by panic over the contaminated rice porridge water. Several of my friends said their homes were filled with a foul smell. One of them even started experiencing stomach issues. The smell is just overwhelming. There's a strong stench. Some people joked that Hangzhou has turned into Bianzhou because the air is filled with the smell Everyone is rushing to buy bottled water. The tap water is undrinkable now. Hangzhou was just starting to recover. But now we're literally getting sick from what we eat and drink. Sorry, I'm not trying to laugh at anyone. I just couldn't hold it in. I've had enough of this. I left the tap running for over 10 minutes and the water still stinks. It's like living in a hotel from hell. Even after flushing for so long, the smell won't go away. The water in our building has smelled bad since last night. Let me describe the odor. It's so strong that I can smell it just standing at the bathroom door. It seeps out. Didn't they say the smell would go away if we let the water run longer? Isn't that what they claimed? Help us! Netizens have confirmed that the water really does stink. If you put a dish under the tap, you'll see particles floating in it. Let me show you what today's tap water looks like. This was the wet tissue I used while brushing my teeth this morning. Clearly, the best business right now in Hangzhou's Yuhang district is selling bottled water. Those shop owners are making a fortune. People are lining up everywhere. I was just washing vegetables when I realized how awful the tap water smelled. Like raw sewage. Now my hands stink too. Can I even eat these vegetables? This is a nightmare. It's like Hangzhou connected its tap water system directly to the sewer pipes. I was riding my electric scooter and noticed many sewer grates were overflowing. Yet the authorities say the water is perfectly fine. But what is this? It doesn't look like orange juice. I've read so many posts online and honestly, it's not just the smell. It even looks disgusting. Just look at these photos. This one and this and this one and these. There are countless similar posts online. Today is July 21st, the sixth day since the incident started. I let the water run for 20 minutes. Just look at it. It's worse than yesterday. Let's try again. I haven't boiled the water because I'm still scared. We let it run for another half hour. Let's see the result. It's clearly yellow. More like brownish yellow and not just a faint tint. It's deeply discolored. People say it's because of contamination that could make you seriously ill. The foul-smelling tap water issue in Hangzhou continues to escalate. In Yuhang District, Zhejiang Province, residents have reported a strong stench in their tap water. Some believe they've been drinking sewage. Rumors online say someone connected the tap water pipes to the street sewage system and now contaminated food might have been shipped nationwide. Six days have passed and some residents still report their tap water is unusable. They're relying on bottled water to get by. According to online sources, a local police report claimed that a waterworks official sabotaged the system to retaliate against superiors, rerouting 13 main pipelines in downtown Hangzhou to connect with sewage pipes. We have hundreds of thousands of residents affected, one person said. I've been drinking this for a week. How could such a mistake even happen? Some say it was human error. Someone connected the tap water pipes to the sewage lines, including those meant for feces. Others claim different reasons, but no one knows for sure. There are several versions going around, but no clear answers. One of their leaders even issued a direct order at the time, saying that from then on, sewage, rainwater and drinking water were to be mixed together somehow, supposedly to filter things or whatever. And there's another theory, that we've always been drinking sewage, you just didn't know it. Until the other day, when someone forgot to turn on the filters and it all got released. Taking a sewage bath is one thing, but drinking sewage water is a whole other matter. You wash rice, vegetables and fruit with it. Isn't that basically eating it directly? That's like eating it raw. The tap water contamination in Yuhang District has seriously impacted local food processing plants. Ordinary residents can still buy bottled water, but these factories haven't stopped operations at all. That means their products, drinks, instant noodles and other food items, are being shipped nationwide. It's no longer just locals at risk. I might buy food produced in Hangzhou's Yuhang District. Now everyone is genuinely scared. When I order lunch delivery because I don't trust my home water, I still worry about what kind of water they used. And now there's panic around bottled water too. One funny comment online cracked me up. Someone said, they claim to bring convenience, but they've actually brought us feces. Another joked, high emotional intelligence, use 5 tons of water. Low emotional intelligence, need 5 tons just to flush the big bowl. The best one was, in the future, call me the Yuhang stench expert. Now even if you eat, well, it's being metered. The thin kind. In parts of Yuhang District, Renhe and Liangchu sub-districts, the tap water emits a strong stench. Many describe it as the smell of feces, or even luosifen, river snail noodle soup. I saw many reports online saying sewage pipes were connected to drinking water pipes. So filthy. We're using and drinking sewage water and we still have to pay for it? Hangzhou really is a big city. It's letting residents drink Ganges level water without leaving their homes. Some netizens raised concerns that food and household product factories in the affected area never stopped production, even during the water contamination crisis. One claimed that sewage was intentionally diverted into the water supply. As production continued, potentially contaminated goods, like food and cosmetics, may have already entered markets across the country. In its July 19th public notice, the local government said there are many online rumors about fecal water, and that police have taken action against related misinformation. They also appear to be suppressing online discussion, videos and comments removed, some users blocked by official accounts. According to an external media report citing local Yuhang authorities, in May, levels of E. coli at the Yongsheng intake point spiked 730-fold. In June, counts reached 16,000 per liter. Two local reservoirs recorded levels of 28,000 and 24,000 per liter. Netizens lamented that locals have essentially been drinking sewage for over a month. They wondered, where exactly did this sewage come from? Videos asking questions were quickly restricted, some suppressed within less than a day. Scarily surreal. It also emerged that the authorities first noticed abnormal water quality at 9 a.m., but didn't issue any notice until 9.44 p.m., a delay of around 12 hours. What were they doing during that time? Residents were bathing and drinking as usual, not knowing they were exposed. Some videos even showed dogs rifling around on people's bodies after showers. Just absurd. When someone used a cotton cloth to boil and filter the water, it clearly came out yellow-brown. And you're telling me that this kind of luminescent substance is normal? Up to the point I posted this video, the official stance is still that most water quality issues have been resolved. That implies a small portion, particularly at the end of the pipeline, still hasn't been fixed. What does that mean? Is it sewage? No, it's not sewage. But the abnormal water quality issue hasn't been solved. Initially, authorities said it was due to raw water fluctuations. Then they denied the claim about sewage backflow. And now, it's equipment misoperation. Can you just give us a clear answer already? What's the real cause? Hey family, didn't I leave early yesterday morning? I noticed that the underground garage had barely any cars. It wasn't even 8 a.m. when I left, and it was nearly empty. That suggests people may have fled Hangzhou right after getting off work Friday night, probably to find a place elsewhere to eat, shower and relax. At night the garage was eerily empty. Most people had fled Yuhang due to the water contamination. I have no choice but to stay. Though I now question if this city truly cares for its residents. We've spent days unable to use the water, relying on bottled supplies and double filtering everything. Even if water service returns, trust is broken. In such a major city, how could water management fail so badly, without anyone taking responsibility? This has gone on for days, and not a single delivery of clean water has been provided. Not by the community management, not the government, not the water bureau. All they said was they'd waive 5 tons of water charges. But how? How will that be calculated or verified? All we've received is a verbal promise. What? Drinking sewage is worth a 5-ton discount? Water costs 3 yuan per ton. So we get 15 yuan off? 15 yuan for drinking sewage? Seriously? The real issue is what we do from here. Every pipe has had contaminated water running through it. Who would dare use it now? We have kids, so we cross districts, 10 to 12 kilometers, just to stay at a hotel and take a proper shower. We don't even eat in Yuhang anymore. As of now, the Yuhang tap water incident is still escalating. Some people mock us, saying Hangzhou produces drinks, beer and bottled water for the entire country, yet its own residents can't safely drink tap water. Chinese-American Liu Ao compared it to the COVID-19 outbreak, where the CCP suppressed the truth. They never want to bear the consequences of truth, just like with the chained woman incident they buried. Now, tap water alerts are popping up in cities like Beijing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Hebei. Chemical waste and bacteria are polluting the water supply. Last night I posted a video after the Hangzhou crisis saying Beijing's water wasn't good either. People accused me of exaggerating, but I swear, it was real. I installed that filter on June 7th. It was pure white then. Look at it now. It's pee-pee cotton. It traps sediment, rust and other contaminants. So please don't think this is just Hangzhou's problem. I suspect the water infrastructure nationwide is operating in the same broken way. 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