A rotting tide of pig carcasses edges towards Shanghai

11/03/2013 / CHINA

A rotting tide of pig carcasses edges towards Shanghai

Shanghai

In just five days Chinese authorities have pulled out over 2,800 pig carcasses from the river that supplies 80% of Shanghai's drinking water. They are now scrambling to stop the rotting carcasses in the Huangpu River floating down to China’s most populous city. But many residents have little faith in the authorities, as it appears they have ignored the build-up of tens of thousands of carcasses over the last two months.

Workers cleaning up the pig carcasses

On Monday, the authorities found traces of the porcine circovirus in the water, prompting speculation the pigs died from a water-borne epidemic. A preliminary investigation suggests farmers from Zhenjiang province dumped dead pigs into the river, which then floated down the Huangpu towards Shanghai. The question on the lips of many Shanghai residents is not just whether polluted water killed the pigs, but whether the dead pigs are now polluting the water.

The Shanghai Water Supply Bureau says there is no evidence the carcasses have affected drinking water quality, but they say they are racing against time to pull out the pigs as soon as possible. However, France 24 contacted Peter Bosshard from the organisation ‘International Rivers’, who believes the dead pigs are “certainly a major public health risk to Shanghai’s water supply”. Ami Sanyal, France 24 Observer living in Shanghai, says while he always drinks mineral water, he is now boiling water before using it to wash.

The authorities are also under fire for being slow to react. Shanghai resident Huang Beibei was the first to raise the alert when he posted photographs on his blog and Weibo on Thursday.

Huang Beibei's Weibo post. Translation: "That is the water we drink! In Hengliaojing Section of upstream Huangpu River, the "first class water resources protection area", the carcasses can be seen everywhere in the river, and it smells. What are the government departments doing? It is not the first or second time. The government departments are always indifferent"

This prompted reporters from the state-run Jiaxing Daily newspaper to speak to villagers in Zhenjiang province. The Jiaxing Daily reported residents claimed to have seen tens of thousands of pig carcasses in January and February. And yet, work to pull them out only began last week.

Screenshot of Jiaxing Daily newspaper's Weibo post claiming tens of thousands of pigs have died since January.

Contributors

Lu Haitao

People are scared the water is already contaminated

Lu Haitao lives in Shanghai.

I think the authorities were covering up. It was only after the photos were exposed online that they started to clear the river. The Shanghai Water Supply Bureau insists the water quality is safe, but many people are questioning this point. People are scared the water is already contaminated.

Pig farmers may also shoulder some of the blame for not properly cooperating with the authorities. It’s possible some of them didn’t report their pigs were sick, for fear no one would want to buy pork from them.

Over the past decade, dead pigs have sometimes been found in the river. But these recent deaths en masse have to have been caused by an epidemic. The law says dead pigs must be burned and buried. Farmers used to send sick and dead pigs to slaughterhouses and sold them at a low price to get rid of them. Since last year, the police are clamping down. So the villagers in Zhenjiang dug mass graves to bury the dead pigs, but there wasn’t enough space, and they just threw the bodies into the river.

In Shanghai, the Agricultural Committee collects dead pigs from farmers, sterilises and disposes of them, and gives farmers compensation money. The authorities in Zhenjiang province don’t do this, so the farmers have to get rid of the pigs themselves.

Lu Haitao

This article was written by France 24 Observer Lu Haitao and France 24 journalist Claire Williams.