Formosa Admits Responsibility for Mass Fish Deaths in Vietnam’s Central Coast

Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Ltd. Co. of the Taiwanese Formosa Plastic Group has admitted responsibility for a spate of mass fish deaths in four Vietnamese central coastal provinces, said Vietnamese Minister cum Head of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung. The Taiwanese firm apologies to Vietnamese people, especially the residents in the four central coastal provinces and commits to pay a compensation of $500 million to communities affected by the disaster, in addition to financing the cleanup, Dung said at a press conference in Hanoi on June 30 which revealed a record of the apology of steel plant’s Chairman Chen Yuan Cheng to Vietnam. In his speech, Chen, on behalf of the company’s 6,300 officials and workers, accepted responsibility causing the environmental problem sparking mass fish deaths that has seriously affected the people’s daily lives and production, as well as the local maritime environment in the four central coastal provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. After admitting its link to the fish deaths, Formosa made a five-point commitment to correct its wrongdoings and resolve the environmental impacts, said Minister Dung. The company pledged to publicly apologize to Vietnam for the incident, offer a total compensation of $500 million which will be used to support local fishermen to switch to other jobs and recover the polluted maritime environment. In the same vein, Formosa will absolutely deal with shortcomings and limitations in waste and wastewater treatment, improve its production technologies to ensure waste is completely treated before being discharged to the environment as required by Vietnamese state management agencies, and not to repeat such incident. The company also promised to coordinate with Vietnamese ministries and agencies and the central provinces to build a set of sustainable solutions to protect the maritime environment in the central region, building trust among Vietnamese people and international friends. The firm finally guaranteed to fulfill all the commitments regarding the incident it has made to the Vietnamese government and not to repeat violations of local laws on environmental and water resource protection. Chairman Chen noted his hope that “with its heartfelt apology and maximum endeavors to handle the incident, Formosa will get sympathy from Vietnam.” Japan’s news agency Nikkei raised a question on how the compensation was calculated. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha said the amount aimed to reimburse the obvious material damage only and it remains modest compared to long-term losses to Vietnam’s residents and environment. According to Vietnam’s investigation, the source of waste from the Vung Ang area in Ha Tinh province contained phenol and cyanide, which, in combination with iron hydroxide, created a mixed compound having a heavier density than seawater and flowing from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien-Hue killing sea-life en masse in April-June. Vietnam found out that Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh was behind violations and incidents during its pilot run that produced phenol, cyanide and iron hydroxide with higher than allowed toxicity levels. Thousands of Vietnamese activists held peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in May and June to protest Formosa and ask the government to have urgent actions to deal with the environmental disaster as well as bring the polluters to justice. The Vietnamese government ordered security forces to violently disperse the protests, beating and arresting hundreds of protestors, many of them had been tortured in police’s custody. Responding to the government’s announcement on the investigation, many activists said the consequences caused by Formosa’s discharge of huge volume of improperly-treated waste water are severe and long-lasting in large scale, so the Taiwanese company needs to pay more and the committed sum of $500 million is very small, they said. Formosa should be closed, many environmentalists said. Some activists demanded the Vietnamese government for apology for its violent behavior against environmentalists. The government must investigate the roles of state agencies in granting investment licenses for Formosa as well as supervising its waste discharge. The environmental disaster caused by Formosa will affect fishing, salt production and tourism in Vietnam’s central coastal region for decades, experts said. Formosa is not the first Taiwanese company polluting Vietnam’s environment. In 2008, another Taiwanese company was found discharging untreated wastewater into the environment. Taiwan-invested Vedan Vietnam Co., Ltd kills Thi Vai river, one of major rivers in Vietnam’s southeastern region, harming life of millions of people.  (Thanh Nien – Young People July 1, Tuoi Tre – Youth July 1)