Questions over central water safety

While the northern-central coastal region has been described as now being safe for tourism activities since the Formosa environmental disaster, further research will be necessary before seafood from the area are safe, Tran Hong Ha, minister of Natural Resources and Environment said at a press meeting on Monday.

 Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Hong Ha, speaks at a press conference to announce the results of the investigations on the environmental situation in the four central coastal provinces on August 22.

The meeting announced the results of the investigations on the environmental situation in the four central coastal provinces which have been affected by the waste water discharge of the Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Company.

"Although the reports have not met the expectations from the public, they have also shown us positive signs in the quality of the seawater," Ha told the meeting, which was attended by foreign and local scientists and leaders of affected provinces.

At the conference, Mai Trong Nhuan, who headed the study on the disaster carried out by the ministry, presented an extensive report on how the marine environment in the disaster zone has recovered from the toxic pollution.

The report said that marine life, including sea water and sea-bed sediment, was generally within Vietnamese safety standards for aquaculture farming, fishing, and tourism activities.

"The toxic chemicals the steel factory dumped into the sea, including cyanide, phenol and iron hydroxide, have shown signs of diluting," the report said. "The marine ecosystem, coral reefs, sea grass and other marine resources, which were seriously damaged in terms of scale and species, has started to make a recovery."

A representative from the Health Ministry said that levels of chemical residue found in seafood caught along the coastline of the four affected provinces have gradually fallen.

Harmful chemicals in the sea water seem to have dissipated, but some pollutants such as phenol remain at relatively high concentrations, said Trinh Van Tuyen, the director of the Institute of Environment Technology.

But it remains unclear whether the fish in the area are now safe to eat.

 

Many fishing boats are still lying idle in the four central coastal provinces.

Friedhelm Schroeder, a German scientist hired to study the consequences of the toxic disaster, said at the conference that fishermen should not return to work yet.

"The Ministry of Health needs to keep a close eye on the situation and give concrete advice about the safety of the fish there," he said.