Steel firm admits deadly water blunder
Vietnam’s government said toxic discharges from a Taiwaneseowned steel plant were responsible for massive fish deaths that have decimated tourism and fishing in four provinces and highlighted the risks of rapid growth in foreign investment.
An estimated 70 tonnes of dead fish washed ashore along more than 200km of Vietnam’s central coastline in early April, sparking rare protests across the country when authorities could not initially pinpoint the cause.
A government minister, Mai Tien Dung, told reporters on Thursday that Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group, admitted causing the disaster and has pledged US$500 million ($700 million) to clean up the environment and compensate affected people, including helping fishermen to find new jobs.
Dung said wastewater containing toxins such as cyanide and carbolic acids was released into the sea during a test run of the plant.
Formosa’s US$10.6 billion steel complex is one of the largest foreign investments in Vietnam. The country’s government has overseen an influx of foreign investment deals amounting to least US$70 billion in the past decade. But ordinary Vietnamese have become increasingly concerned by the environmental and human costs of such rapid development.
A Vietnamese fishing industry group said much more needs to be done to restore the environment in the affected provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue.
“There are no fish or shrimp for fishermen to catch, seafood farming is impossible and the tourism industry has also been affected,” said Nguyen Tu Cuong of the Vietnam Fishery Association. He said most fishermen’s only vocational skill is fishing.
Phan Thanh An, a lifelong fisherman from Quang Tri province, said that for 15 days after the dead fish began washing ashore, “I did not catch any live fish, only fish bones. I have never seen such massive amounts of dead fish like that before.”
Formosa Ha Tinh Steel chair- man Chen Yuan-Cheng, apologised in a video shown at the news conference on Thursday. “Our company takes full responsibility and sincerely apologises to the Vietnamese people . . . for causing the environmental disaster which seriously affected the livelihood, production and jobs of the people and the sea environment,” he said.
"I have never seen such massive amounts of dead fish like that before." Phan Thanh An, lifelong fisherman from Quang Tri province