Ha Tinh sets up council to assess damage caused by Formosa

The council will be headed by a provincial vice chairman, tasked with developing plans and establishing working groups to assess the damage caused by the Formosa pollution incident in the locality.

The decision to establish the council was made by the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province at the end of June 30. Accordingly, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - Duong Tat Thang will hold the role of Chairman of the council. Another Vice Chairman of the province, Mr. Dang Ngoc Son, will hold the role of Vice Chairman of the council, while the members are leaders of the Departments of Natural Resources & Environment, Agriculture & Rural Development, Labor, Invalids & Social Affairs, Finance and Chairmen of the People's Committees of districts and towns of Ky Anh, Cam Xuyen, Loc Ha, Thach Ha, Nghi Xuan.

Ha Tinh is the province that suffered the most damage due to the recent mass fish deaths caused by Formosa.

The job of this council is to develop an outline, assign tasks, establish a support team, and direct the establishment of district-level damage assessment councils; thereby accurately assessing the value of damage after environmental incidents in all affected areas as soon as possible.

At the same time, the council will also propose comprehensive solutions to restore incidents and stabilize production in accordance with regulations and realities in localities, then synthesize reports to the province and the Government.

Damage assessment must be accurate, fair, public and transparent in accordance with regulations.During its work, this council uses the seal of the Provincial People's Committee to perform its tasks and self-dissolves after completing its tasks.

On the evening of June 30, the Government announced that the discharge of waste from Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS) was the cause of the mass fish deaths in Ha Tinh and several central provinces. Accordingly, the group's leaders publicly apologized to the Government and people of Vietnam for allowing this serious environmental incident to occur.

Formosa pledged to compensate people for economic losses and support job conversion, compensate for pollution treatment and restore the marine environment in four central provinces of Vietnam with a total amount equivalent to over VND11,500 billion (USD500 million).

Previously, on April 6, fish deaths appeared near the Vung Ang industrial park (Son Duong, Ky Anh, Ha Tinh), then spread to the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue. About 70 tons of wild fish from the four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien - Hue died and washed ashore, mainly bottom-dwelling species. Thua Thien - Hue alone had 35 tons of farmed fish die. Fishermen in the four provinces are in trouble because the sea fish cannot be sold, or are sold at low prices, not enough to cover fishing costs.

According to VNE