Shanghai residents should be congratulated for their fortitude in the face of thousands of dead pigs floating down Huangpu River, which is an important source of the city's water supply.

Other than an avalanche of complaints, sour remarks and wisecracks in blogsphere, which were expected, there was no report of panic hoarding of bottled water as seen in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in 2007 following the outbreak of blue algae in Taihu Lake. Of course, that was six years ago.

Shanghai residents' stoic response to a calamity widely reported in print for several weeks and graphically shown on television, including repeated close-up shots of decomposing carcasses, seemed to indicate, as some commentators have suggested, their maturity, or, at the other extreme, deep apathy. But some 15,000 dead pigs floating down the upper reaches of the vital river is not something that any Shanghai resident can ignore. People in Shanghai are obviously concerned, but they have remained calm.