A fruit trading and processing facility in Cao Lanh District, Dong Thap Province, southern Vietnam was found to have furtively discharged wastewater into a canal, leaving a negative impact on the daily and farming activities of local inhabitants.

The Sau Thuoc fruit trading and processing facility, owned by Nguyen Thanh Nha, began operations in 2015.

During its operations, the household business has discharged foul-smelling wastewater and mango kernels into the environment, thereby contaminating the water that the locales use for farming purposes.

Nguyen Ngoc Doan, who has lived in Cao Lanh’s My Hiep Commune for nearly 30 years, said that his family had utilized water in the canal for bathing, washing, and other daily activities prior to the establishment of the facility.

But now, the canal water is contaminated, he said, expressing his hope that the facility would stop discharging smoke and wastewater into the environment to reduce pollution.

The natural resource and environment authority in Cao Lanh said that it had imposed administrative fines worth a combined VND57.5 million (US$2,250) on the facility in May and December last year.

At that time, Nha failed to fulfill environment-related requirements and to make a report on its efforts to protect the environment.

On April 22, the authority discovered that his facility released untreated wastewater into the environment, in addition to digging an authorized pit, measuring 20 meters long, eight meters wide, and 1.5 meters deep, for wastewater storage.

One day later, the Cao Lanh People’s Committee proposed the provincial administration levy an administrative fine of VND185 million ($7,260) on his business for building an unlawful waste treatment facility.

Nguyen Kim Nuong, deputy head of the Cao Lanh natural resource and environment authority, said that the business is seeking remediation measures.

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