After close to a week of clean-up, the Huangpu river flowing through
After close to a week of clean-up, the Huangpu river flowing through Shanghai in China is almost clear of floating pig carcasses.
Over 10,000 of the 15,000 dead pigs have been recovered and properly disposed of, and officials have traced the root of the problem to farmers in nearby Zhejiang province.
Madam Wang is one of many small-time pig farmers who have been blamed for the thousands of pig carcasses floating in Huangpu river.
She said: “We have never had dead pigs. I’m not sure whether other farmers dump their dead pigs into the river.”
But those living by the river say it is a problem that has been going on for years.
A villager said: “It happens every year. Sometimes if they float too close to shore, we’ll use bamboo poles to push them away. There’re many pig farmers in the villages and they throw dead pigs into the river.”
Disease has been ruled out as the cause of death for the pigs.
Villagers seem to think it is the colder temperatures this winter that killed the hogs.
Free carcass disposal services are readily available to farmers, but officials admit it is an uphill task to regulate the smaller subsistence farmers.
Chen Yunhua, party secretary of Zhulin Village in Zhejiang, said: “Subsistence farmers find it inconvenient to dump dead pigs. We can’t eliminate the possibility of farmers committing the offence in the future. We’ll have to be strict in handling such situations. Some villagers are used to the habit. Some hide the pigs under floating water plants. We have been educating the villagers through pamphlets and other publicity material.”
Even though pig farming started back in 1980, regulations on the proper disposal of dead pigs were only implemented some three years ago.
It is hoped that with the latest incident, which has gathered much media attention in China, will put extra pressure will be put on officials to do more – step up more checks, devote more resources to solving the problem in the long term.
Source AP