Three Vietnamese Firms Fined $181,800 for Mass Fish Deaths in Thanh Hoa

Vietnam’s Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment on May 17 issued a fine of nearly VND4 billion ($181,800) to three companies in the central province off Thanh Hoa for discharging untreated wastewater which killed thousands tons of fish in Buoi River. Tan Hieu Hung Company, a cassava processing plant, Hoa Binh Sugar Cane and Sugar JSC and Pig Farm Nguyen Ngoc Sang were all fined. Tan Hieu Hung Co. is accused of 12 violations on environmental regulations and was fined VND2 billion. The operation at the plant has been suspended for one year from May 20. The authorities asked the company to upgrade its waste treatment and monitoring systems. The inspectors also discovered 12 violations at Hoa Binh Sugar Cane and Sugar JSC, including excessive waste water levels and a lack of an environmental monitoring program. The first firm was suspended for six months with a fine of VND1.8 billion. Compensations will be negotiated between the companies and affected people. The firms were also asked to deal with the consequences of the environmental damage.  The swine farm was fined VND200 million and banned from discharging wastewater for three months. Dozens of fish farming households in Thach Thanh fistrict, Thanh Hoa province had to face huge losses after their fish stocks died en masse from May 4. A report from the ministry showed that more than 17 tons of fish from 34 farms died while there was no report on the number of wild fish killed in the river. Hoa Binh Sugar Cane and Sugar Joint Stock Company admitted to releasing untreated waste water into the river and agreed to pay $62,695 in compensation to local fish farmers. Meanwhile, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City reported that over 70 tons of fish died in Nhieu Loc- Thi Nghe Canal due to heavy contamination of water with toxic substances. Recently, there are number of rivers in many places in Vietnam heavily polluted by waste of industrial plants and discharge from residents’ waste, causing massive death of aquatic species. Especially, hundreds of tons of aquatic species have died in the central coastal regions in four central provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. Many experts and environmentalists have blamed the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant for causing the environmental disaster as it has discharged huge volume of toxic waste into the sea water. (Dan Tri May 19)