An emergency water pipeline has recently been installed in Baoxing County, the area worst-hit by the quake. Whether it's safe to drink the water is one of the main concerns in the quake zone.

It is the 8th day since the 7.0-magnitude quake struck the area. This area is slowly recovering from its ordeal. We follow the Drinking Water Monitoring Team as they check the quality of the water at one of the water sources in the area.

This is one of the water sources that the local monitor team check everyday. As we can see here they first collect water samples and then carry out tests to check for toxicity and the presence of heavy metals.

Most of the water samples are checked on site and indexes like organic matter content are checked back at Chengdu headquarters.

Cheng Xingyu, Director of Baoxing County Environment Bureau, said, "We have not ruled out the possibility of water contamination, we are still closely monitoring water quality. Water purification systems are temporarily guaranteeing people have safe drinking water."

Authorities say in the Baoxing area, 85 percent of water sources checked meet the safety standards but it's necessary to have the water purification system in place in the case of secondary disasters. Qin Wei is one of the water purification system donors in the quake zone.

Qin said, "We've donated the drinking water purification equipment so that people in the disaster areas at least have water they can safely drink."

Back at the Baoxing County Environmental Protection Bureau a temporary tent has been set up with water monitoring equipment ready to examination the water quality.

Luo Bin, Sichuan Environmental Monitoring Center, said, "After 6 days of monitoring the local water quality, we've established that the water quality conforms to national water safety standards."

Water monitoring experts say they've launched a plan with the local Environmental Department to help better protect water sources in the area.

(CNTV.cn April 28, 2013)