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Vedan pollution case to have impact on FDI hot-spot province
Dong Nai province, Vietnam’s foreign direct investment pacesetter, will possibly stop licencing new projects in industrial parks where waste treatment facilities are still not available.
The move is aimed at preventing environment pollution in the region from further worsening in the wake of the scandal related to the Taiwan’s monosodium glutamate producer Vedan Vietnam, which came to light last week.
Vedan Vietnam was found discharging thousands of cubic metres of untreated toxic wastewater into the Thi Vai River for more than a decade beyond the knowledge of authorities. The finding has triggered numerous public outcry. Local media reported that the company might face a fine mounting to VND91 billion (around $5.5 million).
Le Viet Hung, director of the province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, confirmed to Vietnam Investment Review last week that his department was working with the provincial industrial parks management board (DIZA) and other relevant agencies on the plan to stop licensing before sending it to the provincial government for approval by early next month.
If the plan was approved, he said, the province would block new projects in 11 industrial parks without wastewater treatment facilities and five other industrial parks where the treatment facilities have become overloaded
The industrial parks are Long Thanh, Bien Hoa 1, Bien Hoa 2, Lotex, Tam Phuoc, Agtex - Long Binh, Ho Nai, Song May, Bau Xeo, Nhon Trach 2- Loc Khang, Thanh Phu, Ong Keo, Xuan Loc, Nhon Trach 5, Dinh Quan and Nhon Trach Garment Industrial Park.
These 16 industrial parks reportedly discharge more than 37,800 cubic meters of untreated wastewater per day into the rivers, canals and residential areas, aggravating the environmental pollution there for years.
“Besides blocking new investment projects into these industrial parks, the IP developers will be also forced to complete and upgrade the wastewater facilities this year, have their development licences revoked or close down their shops,” he said.
He unveiled that the province was also considering to shut down a number of industrial parks because the developers have been very slow in building treatment facilities, even though the developers have promised to complete the facility by early 2010.
Nguyen Manh Van, DIZA’s deputy head, said strong measures should be taken to tighten control over heavy environment pollution in the region but the proposal [to stop licensing new projects into industrial parks must be considered thoroughly as “it is a sensitive issue for investment attraction”.
Vietnamese authorities are determined to apply aggressive measures to protect the environment in the wake of Vedan violations, deterring foreign-invested companies from bringing outdated technologies and wastes into the country, destroying its environment.
“The act [of poisoning the river] is more than an act of violating the law, but rather contempt of the law,” minister of natural resources and environment Pham Khoi Nguyen stressed at a press briefing regarding the case last week.
The minister said PM Nguyen Tan Dung had asked the case to be prosecuted and the factory temporarily closed down if the evidence on polluting the environment was sufficient.
The harshest penalty will be to close down the factory besides criminal proceedings.
VNN
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