Taiwanese-owned firm allegedly dumps untreated industrial waste in southern Vietnam
Sunday, April 12, 2015, 17:07 GMT+7
The environmental crime prevention police agency in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai on Saturday said they are conducting a further investigation into a case related to Taiwanese-owned monosodium glutamate maker Vedan which reportedly hired two trucks to dump untreated industrial waste earlier this week.
Local police on Thursday afternoon caught two trucks red-handed unloading 50 tons of stinking industrial sludge at an unused land area in Bien Hoa City, the capital of the province.
After being detained, the drivers, Nguyen Huu Chung, 43, and Nguyen Minh Quang, 51, both from Vinh Cuu District told police officers that a person working for the Taiwanese-owned firm had hired them to dump the industrial sludge.
According to police, the untreated industrial waste, which is black smooth mud with an unpleasant odor, might have been discharged from the production line of monosodium glutamate at Vedan Vietnam Co., located in Long Thanh District, around 35 kilometers from Bien Hoa City.
In 2008, environmental police officers discovered that a secret pipeline was installed by Vedan at its plant to discharge untreated wastewater, causing destruction to fish farms and riverside crops of many farmers in Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province.
About 105 million liters of the untreated wastewater were dumped into the Thi Vai River each month for fourteen years beginning in 1994, according to police.
Statistics by farmers’ associations showed that Vedan’s wastewater caused damage worth VND107 billion (US$4.92 million) to 839 fish farmers in Ho Chi Minh City and more than VND191 billion ($8.78 million) to 1,134 farmers in Ba Ria-Vung Tau, who only asked for VND53 billion ($2.44 million) in compensation, according to Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper.
In 2012, when Vedan announced compensation of VND220 billion ($10.1 million), the farmers’ associations in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, and Ho Chi Minh City promised that after receiving the money, they would give it all to the affected households as identified by the Ho Chi Minh City Institute for Environment and Natural Resources.
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