QUITO – A crude oil spill near the Santa Rosa River, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) west of this capital, could affect the supply of potable water in the area, pipeline operator OCP-Ecuador said on Friday.

The Santa Rosa River flows into the Quijos and the latter into the Coca; the latter two are a source of potable water for cities and towns in parts of three provinces.

An OCP-Ecuador official told Efe that, after the local government in the city of Coca decided to suspend potable water service as a preventative measure, the company sent 10 water tankers to help boost supplies.

"We've adopted an exaggerated preventative policy to avoid any harm" to the local population, the OCP-Ecuador official said, adding that this measure was taken after the discovery of "some traces" of crude oil in another nearby river.

In a statement, the company said that it was permanently monitoring the water quality of the Coca River and that "the clean-up and containment (efforts) are continuing 24 hours a day even though intense rain in the sector is making the work difficult."

A landslide on Wednesday ruptured the underground pipeline at a spot in the Amazonian jungle and caused some 14,000 barrels of crude to spill.

The spill was detected due to a drop in pressure in the OCP, one of two pipelines that link oil wells in the Amazon with a Pacific port in the city of Esmeraldas.

Around 100 technicians from OCP-Ecuador, state oil company Petroecuador and the firms CORENA, PECS, Arcoil and Ecuavital are involved in carrying out clean-up and remedial work in the affected areas.

Ecuador produces some 500,000 barrels of crude per day. EFE