Northern Vietnam lake heavily polluted by oil spill

Oil spill from a steel laminator has been contaminating a major lake in the northern province of Thai Nguyen for a week now, local reports say.

The oil spill from the Gia Sang company has been diverted through a ditch dozens of meters long to the Bay Mau Lake, forming a stinky layer of oil up to 3-4 centimeters above the water.

“This is not the first time that the Gia Sang company has caused oil to spread on the lake,” said Bui Danh Tich, a local resident who has bred fish at the lake for nearly 16 years now.

Tich said he had to take the oil out himself every time to save the fish.

Workers from the company this time only discovered the oil spread last Saturday morning, when around 4,000-5,000 liters of oil had been discharged into the lake, which provides water for more than 25 hectares of paddy fields in the district’s Gia Sang Ward.

Authorities have taken samples for investigating the spill.