Prime Minister requests review of facilities discharging waste into the sea after fish deaths

The Government Office has just announced the conclusion of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the working session with localities affected by the phenomenon of unusual seafood deaths.

People collect dead fish washed ashore in the central coast.

The announcement stated that on May 1, in Ha Tinh, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc worked with localities affected by the unusual death of seafood.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Prime Ministers Vu Duc Dam and Trinh Dinh Dung; Ministers of Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development, Science and Technology, Health, Information and Communications, Industry and Trade, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam and Minister, Head of the Government Office; leaders of the Ministries of Finance, Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Public Security, National Defense; leaders of the Central Organizing Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Science, Technology and Environment; Provincial Party Secretaries, Chairmen of the People's Committees of Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue provinces.

After listening to the Minister and Head of the Government Office's summary report on the implementation of the Prime Minister's direction in supporting people in areas where seafood died abnormally to stabilize people's lives, restore production and ensure security and order in the provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue, and the opinions of the Deputy Prime Ministers and delegates attending the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc agreed with the assessments and comments of leaders of ministries, branches, localities and delegates on the handling of the environmental incident of unusual seafood deaths that occurred recently in the provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue. This is a serious environmental incident, negatively affecting the lives of people in the four central coastal provinces.

Unusual fish deaths of unknown cause washed ashore.

Because this was an unusual incident, the first time it happened in Vietnam, the initial handling was lacking information, passive, and confused. However, thanks to the drastic, comprehensive, and continuous direction of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers of relevant ministries and branches, especially local leaders, up to now, the political security situation, order, and social safety have been controlled, the marine environment, especially in offshore areas beyond 20 nautical miles, is safe. Localities have made great efforts, mobilizing the entire political system, functional units (some provinces have established steering committees) to take drastic action to promptly resolve arising situations.

However, some localities are still slow in reporting and proposing solutions; some ministries and sectors have not promptly handled situations arising in the management field of the sector; coordination between ministries and sectors and between ministries and sectors with localities is still confusing, loose, and inconsistent, so the effectiveness of handling this issue has not met requirements; environmental management still has many shortcomings, especially the monitoring and supervision of wastewater at some related factories is still loose; some bad elements have taken advantage of the situation of dead seafood affecting people's lives to incite and attract the masses to cause trouble, complicating the situation.

This is a serious and unusual environmental incident, occurring for the first time in Vietnam on a large sea area, so the determination of the cause must be carried out urgently, carefully, firmly, and scientifically based. In order to quickly find the cause of this environmental incident and to strengthen control, not to let similar incidents occur at the same time, to ensure the stability of people's lives, and to soon restore production, fishing, aquaculture, and seafood, the Prime Minister requests ministries, branches, and localities to perform the following tasks:

Localities continue to strictly implement the Prime Minister's instructions in Notices No. 68/TB-VPCP dated April 29, 2016, No. 70/TB-VPCP dated April 30, 2016 of the Government Office and related documents.

The Minister of Science and Technology shall preside over and coordinate with the President of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, relevant ministries and branches, including mobilizing foreign scientists to quickly conclude objectively, scientifically, and independently the cause of the above environmental incident.

Based on the opinion of the Ministry of Science and Technology on the cause, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment - the spokesperson on this issue - is assigned to report to the Prime Minister for consideration and strict handling in accordance with the provisions of law, without excluding any organization or individual.

The Ministry of Public Security shall preside over and continue to investigate environmental violations in the Central region to promptly conclude and strictly handle them. Localities, ministries, branches and relevant units shall be responsible for coordinating with the police to provide relevant documents and evidence to serve the investigation.

The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment and the Chairmen of the People's Committees of localities, in accordance with the law, shall review all production facilities that discharge waste, and at the same time strengthen inspections of coastal industrial production facilities, and shall not allow discharge of waste into the sea without monitoring in accordance with the law on the environment; and shall require close supervision of wastewater discharge affecting the marine environment.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the People's Committee of Ha Tinh province reported to the Prime Minister on the licensing and monitoring of the waste discharge system of Formosa Steel Corporation Limited, clarifying the responsibilities of relevant agencies and individuals; at the same time, immediately deploy an automatic monitoring station from the Formosa factory's waste discharge point to the monitoring station of the Ha Tinh Department of Natural Resources and Environment to inspect and automatically collect samples for analysis to control the factory's waste discharge.

The Ministries of Health, Agriculture and Rural Development, and Natural Resources and Environment, according to their functions, shall immediately publicly announce the locations of safe fishing grounds for seafood fishing and safe seafood products so that people can feel secure in using them.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade coordinates with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities to direct seafood trading and processing units and enterprises to continue to simultaneously deploy solutions to purchase and promptly consume offshore seafood that has been confirmed to be safe.

The Ministry of Information and Communications directs media agencies to provide accurate, objective, and timely information to encourage and motivate people to continue fishing outside 20 nautical miles and consuming seafood. At the same time, coordinate with relevant agencies to provide official and timely information to media agencies to inform people about safe seafood products (only products with clean product certification can be consumed), clean marine environment, and information to promote production and tourism activities in all coastal provinces of the Central region.

The State Bank of Vietnam continues to direct credit institutions to have plans to reduce, exempt, freeze, and extend old loans and provide new loans so that fishermen can continue production; support fishermen with preferential loans when needed.

The Ministry of Public Security and localities continue to investigate, clarify and strictly handle subjects who incite and entice people to gather and cause disturbances, seriously affecting political security and social order and safety, causing economic damage, social instability, affecting people's lives and the investment environment.

The Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to always be proactive and ready with plans to mobilize forces to promptly handle situations, ensure security and order, and not be passive or surprised in direction and operation.

Regarding some recommendations of ministries, branches and localities, the Prime Minister agreed with the proposal of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the opinions of ministries and agencies on supporting with rice, money and interest for subjects participating in aquaculture, fishing, fishery service activities, purchasing aquatic and seafood products, coastal households, owners of coastal and offshore fishing vessels affected.

In particular, support for aquaculture households according to the provisions of Decision No. 49/2012/QD-TTg and Decision No. 142/2009/QD-TTg; provide 15 kg of rice/person/month for 1.5 months for affected coastal and offshore fishing households; support coastal fishing vessels that cannot go to sea with 5 million VND each; support credit interest rates for households purchasing fish and providing fishing services; support for destroying dead fish. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is assigned to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank of Vietnam and relevant localities to urgently propose specific support plans, submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision before May 5, 2016.

For affected offshore fishing vessel owners, the Prime Minister assigned the People's Committees of the provinces to review, compile specific statistics, and report to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and relevant agencies (including credit institutions) to review and handle immediately according to their authority. In cases beyond their authority, they will report to the Prime Minister.

The Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam continues to direct the local state banking system, commercial banks, and policy banks to implement solutions to support interest rates, freeze debt, extend debt, and handle risks for affected households according to regulations and continue to provide new loans to restore and develop production./.

According to Vietnamplus