More than 20 hectares of paddy fields and cropland were damaged as they were submerged in sewage sludge from a copper ore processing plant in Lao Cai Province, northern Vietnam, local authorities said on Monday.

Earlier, a dam failure occurred at the Ta Phoi copper ore processing plant, located in the provincial city of Lao Cai on August 8.

This resulted in water and sewage sludge from the processing copper ore flooding the surrounding residential areas, waterways, and croplands.

By 3:00 pm on Sunday, Ta Phoi Copper JSC, which manages the plant, was working with local authorities to work out the total damage from the incident, which affected 24 local households.

As a result, they discovered that the incident damaged roughly 23 hectares of paddy fields and croplands, plus some 50 wells in Cam Duong Commune under Binh Minh Ward and Pom Han Ward.

The company worked with the city’s administration to determine the number of affected households in need of resettlement.

Authorities are working with 20 households in Ta Phoi Commune, whose water supply, crops, aquatic farms, and paddy fields were impacted by the dam breach.

On August 9, the administration of Ta Phoi Commune said that five hectares of paddy fields and aquatic farms in the commune were completely submerged under sludge measuring 40-80 cm thick.

To cope with the aftermath of the breakage, Ta Phoi Copper Company first provided financial support of VND235 million (US$9,845) for 47 affected households, with each receiving VND5 million ($209.46).

The provincial People’s Committee earlier also asked the city’s administration, the Ta Phoi Commune administration, and relevant agencies to continue to deal with the consequences of the dam breach.

The provincial administration told the departments in charge of environmental, trade, investment, transport, construction, and agricultural affairs to review procedures linked to a project building the copper ore extraction plant and adopt measures to remove obstacles facing the project.

The company was told to work closely with the local competent forces to determine the root cause of the incident and take measures to help stabilize the daily lives of the affected households.

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