By Irving Feng
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

LANZHOU, China – Reports say that roughly 100 decomposing human bodies are fished out of the Yellow River every year in and around the city of Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province.

A report from a Shanghai newspaper reported that the figure of 100 is actually low, and the most recent statistics place the number of decomposing human remains retrieved from the river closer to 200 or 300 per year.

The report from the Shanghai newspaper is bolstered by “body fishers,” like Wei Jinpeng, who collect the floating corpses along the river so they can display the bodies and sell them back to the families of the deceased.  Wei Jinpeng says the estimate of 100 per year is likely incredibly low given that he alone fishes out roughly 80 to 100 bodies per year.

Body fishing is also an incredibly lucrative trade for those who engage in the business, like Wei Jinpeng, in the city of Lanzhou.  The city’s government has dragged their feet in cracking down on the gruesome trade since issuing a promise to the public to fix the problem back in 2006.

Law enforcement and city officials remain uninterested in the body fishing epidemic despite reports stating that around 5% of the bodies fished out of the Yellow River are results of criminal activity and murder.  Many of the bodies fished out of the river are murdered, female migrant workers.

The dumping of human remains into Chinese rivers has been an ongoing problem for decades, but has recently resurfaced as a controversial issue in international media due to the investigations surrounding the dumping of tens of thousands of pig carcasses in the Huangpu River in Shanghai and dead ducks being dumped into the Nan River in Sichuan province.

The controversy stems from the possibility that the human remains, as well as the animal remains that riddle the Chinese rivers, may be contaminating and polluting the water supply provided by the rivers.  A 2005 Daxia Hydropower Company report suggested that the human remains in the water supply make the water hazardous to drink.

If the bodies are left untreated and decomposing in the rivers, the environmental impact and pollution is much more severe than the regular dumping of household waste into the rivers.   Additionally, in a 2012 investigation, river water is believed to regularly mix with well water which is consumed by humans, but the river water contaminated with human remains makes the water unsafe to drink.

For further information, please see:

The Times of India – Pigs, ducks and now bodies in China river – 2 April 2013

Foreign Policy – Is This a Pandemic Being Born? – 1 April 2013

Forbes – Now In China’s Rivers: Decomposing Humans – 31 March 2013

South China Morning Post – Officials in Lanzhou say bodies floating in river not affecting water quality – 29 March 2013