The tap water supply fully resumed Sunday night in a city of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region after the water was proven to be drinkable, nine days after it was cut off for sanitization, local officials said.

In the picture taken on August 4, 2009 people line up for drinking water supplied by local fire trucks in Xincheng District of Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Health and environmental authorities tested 118 water samples from 18 communities in Chifeng's new city center, where more than 4,200 people were sickened as rainwater contaminated the water after a storm on July 23, Gao Xihua, deputy secretary general of the municipal government told a press conference.

"Tests showed all the samples meet the 19 national standards set for drinking water," Gao said.

As of Sunday, 4,246 patients of gastrointestinal illness had recovered, while another 19 remained in hospital. No serious cases or death were reported, he said.

The contaminated tap water supply was cut off on August 1 for thorough sanitization, said a public health official surnamed Jin with the city's disease control center.

It resumed Thursday but was not drinkable, "because the pipelines was just disinfected," Jin said.

Since July 27, the municipal government has deployed 19 fire engines to provide drinking water for the new city center with a population of 58,000.

"We should learn a lesson from this incident, and step up monitoring in the future," Jin said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2009)