The wastewater from the Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant is being blamed for killing thousands of fish and other marine life in Quang Ngai Province.
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| Tonnes of dead fish |
The appearance of dead fish in Dong Quang field, along with their smell, has caused worries in the village of Dong Lo, Binh Thuan commune of Binh Son district in recent days.
Nguyen Binh, a farmer from the village said, “We are really starting to worry because we make our income from the fields, but now we have to shovel out several kilogrammes of dead fish every day. If this goes on it will ruin, not only the aquatic resources, but our agricultural activities too. Entire rice and flower fields could disappear."
Wastewater from the adjacent Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol plant has become the immediate suspect for the problems. Because of their proximity, the field would inevitably be subject to the most serious environmental effects coming from the plant, run by Central Petroleum Bio-fuel Joint-stock Company.
An investigation was quickly carried out by Binh Thuan People’s Committee, the Binh Son Committee Division of Natural Resources and Environment and representative from Dung Quat Plant.
Nguyen Quang Huy, Chairman of Binh Thuan People’s Committee said later, “The cause of this damage has been found to be the waste water coming from Dung Quat. We are now demanding that they take responsibility for this, and deal with the aftermath."
Phi Quang Hien, Deputy Director of Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said on February 13 that the department hasn’t received any information about the case.
His only comment was, “We’ll investigate the case right this afternoon.”
