10 Places Humans Shouldn’t Be Able To Live (But Do)
9. Jiapingtang River - The River Of Dead Pigs
40 odd years ago, the Jiapingtang River was a clear, crisp refreshing stream from which locals would draw their water and let their children play in.
Nowadays it is most famous for the thousands of dead pigs that bob around in its slimy, green waters. In the April of 2013, over 16,000 pig carcasses infected with porcine circovirus were dragged out of the river, and many more continue to float by.
It's not just pigs either. The outrageous levels of pollution caused by porcine dumping and general filth has caused ducks and fish to likewise perish, adding to the soup of algae, litter and rotting carcasses.
The best guess is that an outbreak of porcine circovirus in a pig farm upstream caused the farmer to decide to cut his losses and dump the infected livestock in the river to be carried far away where he didn't have to deal with it.
The response to the pollution has been slow and inadequate, which is surprising when you consider that the Jiapingtang is one of the tributaries that supplies drinking water to the 24 million people living in the city of Shanghai.