The quality of seawater in the Central region is within the permissible limits.
At 8:00 a.m. on August 22, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment chaired a conference to announce the current state of the marine environment from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien - Hue, after Formosa's waste discharge incident caused mass seafood deaths.
August 22
4 members chaired the conference. Photo: Duc Hung.
The conference was chaired by Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha, along with Mr. Chau Van Minh (President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), Mr. Vo Tuan Nhan (Deputy Minister of Natural Resources) and representatives of Quang Tri province's leaders.
Previously, at the press conference on June 30, the Government announced that the culprit causing the mass fish deaths in the central region was the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation. The company admitted its wrongdoings and agreed to pay 500 million USD in compensation to remedy the consequences. However, the question of the quality of the central region's sea and whether people who swim and eat fish caught within 20 nautical miles or less is safe remains open.
Professor Mai Trong Nhuan, Director of Hanoi National University,Presenting a report on the assessment results of the current state of the marine environment in four central provinces from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien - Hue.To get this result, the research team6 approaches were carried out. In which, scientists monitored seawater (surface, middle, bottom) sediments, flocculent films, ecosystems and marine organisms. The group took 211 sampling points.
Regarding water samples, there are a total of 36 survey routes with a total of 146 sampling points over a total length of about 348 km of sea, of which 32 survey routes extend to a depth of 30 m; 96 monitoring points (64 coastal points from 1.5 to 5 km from the coast, 32 nearshore points 10 km from the coast). There are 4 special survey routes extending to a water depth of 60 m with a total of 44 monitoring points (8 coastal points, 36 nearshore points); 6 monitoring points in lagoons and coastal villages such as Tam Giang - Cau Hai, Lap An.
Monitoring parameters are based on Vietnamese standards and typical parameters of environmental incidents such as Phenol, Cn, Fe...
Seawater quality assessment results.
After showing a series of technical parameters, Mr. Mai Trong Nhuan explained that the results of monitoring and assessing the current status, developments and pollution levels of the marine environment, ecosystems and coastal areas of 4 central provinces showed that the typical parameters of the marine environment and marine sediments in most areas are within the limits prescribed by Vietnamese standards, meeting the standards for bathing areas, aquatic sports, aquaculture and aquatic conservation.
Some areas with local eddies such as Son Duong, east of Nhat Le (Son Cha island), the ability to disperse substances in water is worse, at the same time the ability to accumulate toxins in sediment is higher, need to be closely monitored and supervised. Strict control of emission sources from the mainland and due to the natural cleaning mechanism of the environment, the content of pollutants from environmental incidents is tending to decrease. The coral reef ecosystem, seagrass and marine resources in the area after the impacts of environmental incidents were strongly degraded in both biodiversity and scale, now starting to have a positive recovery.
Regarding the quality of caught seafood, according to the monitoring data of the Ministry of Health from April 28 to August 2016, the test results assessing the safety level of seafood samples taken in 4 central provinces showed that the content of some pollutants in seafood has gradually decreased over time. In the coming time, the Ministry of Health will work with the Ministry of Agriculture to monitor seafood caught in safe sea areas announced by the Ministry of Natural Resources.
According to VNE
