River fish die mass in China

Hundreds of carp carcasses are decaying on the Huangpu River in the city of Shanghai during the past few days.

Shanghai Daily reported that the people on both sides of the Hoang Pho River smelled the rotten smell from last Monday. The environmental workers picked up more than 250kg of dead carp from the Huangpu River in Tungjiang district yesterday. Authorities have not found the cause of the dead fish, but the media put forward a series of hypotheses - such as climate change, electric fishing behavior, landmines and poisoning.

Shanghai environmental staff collected more than 250kg of bodies
carp from Hoang Pho River on April 8. (Photo: asiaone.com)

Gao, a local official, said it was possible that poisoning caused the carp to die mass. The Shanghai government claims chemical pollution is not the culprit, because no chemical factory is located near the river. They also confirmed that mass mortality does not harm human health and drinking water sources.

"Dead fish do not reduce the quality of the Huangpu River water , " said a Zhang family official of Shanghai City.

The incident happened just days after Shanghai officials picked up more than 16,000 pigs on the Huangpu River. Liu Fengqiang, an environmental official, said the experts had not yet found a link between the two.

River pollution in China is becoming increasingly serious due to unsustainable economic development. Last year, a senior Chinese official admitted that water in about 20% of the river in this country became toxic to people due to pollution.