Nearly 3,000 pig carcasses found in Shanghai drinking water source

Around 3,000 dead pigs have been found in the river serving as a source of drinking water in China’s most populated city of Shanghai, official sources say.

Local authorities said Monday that at least 2,800 decomposing pigs have been fished out of the Huangpu river so far.

According to witnesses, workers used long-handled rakes to pull out the stinking and bloated carcasses of pigs, which were turning from pink to grey.

Reports indicated that the dead pigs were first discovered on March 7. The animals probably came from the upstream province of Zhejiang, where farmers were said to have dropped them in the waterway after they died of disease.

The incident has triggered a public outcry in China as concerns have been running high over food safety and environmental pollution.

“Is the water still drinkable after dead pigs were found floating in it?” asked Liu Wanqing, a Shanghai resident.

“The government has a responsibility to conduct a thorough investigation and provide safe water to residents,” the resident added.

Local officials said the test samples from the water, gathered on an hourly basis, showed that the floating carcasses have not yet contaminated the river. However, the dead animals should be removed as fast as possible before they rot in the water.

According to Shanghai’s water bureau, the affected section of the river accounts for over 20 percent of the raw water supply to the city’s 23 million people.

However, Shanghai’s Agriculture Committee said authorities detected porcine circovirus in some of the carcasses, which it described as a common swine disease that does not affect humans.