Gov’t to get tough with polluting firms

Viet Nam News - Hanoi,Vietnam 6 10 2008

The factory bought cassava from local farmers to use in its operations, so threats of its closure scare cassava growers. Thieu said that the blame for Phuoc Long no longer buying cassava rests on Phuoc Long farmers’shoulders. Thus, penalties against the factory could not be adjusted to cater to cassava growers’ concerns.


BINH PHUOC — The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MoNRE) will make no concessions to polluting companies for any economic considerations,deputy minister Tran Hong Ha said last Friday.

The announcement comes in the wake of Vedan Viet Nam, a monosodium glutamate (MSG) producer, being fined for dumping untreated waste water into rivers in Dong Nai Province.

Fines levied against Vedan Viet Nam Limited Company and the Vedan starch factory in Binh Phuoc Province for dumping untreated effluents into rivers are in accordance with the law, said Ha.

The Phuoc Long Starch Factory, Vedan Viet Nam’s affiliate, was ordered to suspend operations for 10 days due to accusations of violating the same regulations as Vedan Viet Nam.

Truong Tan Thieu, chairman of the Binh Phuoc Province People’s Committee, said no official decisions have been made yet about permanantly shutting the starch factory down.

The factory bought cassava from local farmers to use in its operations, so threats of its closure scare cassava growers.

Thieu said that the blame for Phuoc Long no longer buying cassava rests on Phuoc Long farmers’shoulders. Thus, penalties against the factory could not be adjusted to cater to cassava growers’ concerns.

He urged farmers not to worry because the province still has four other factories to sell cassava to.

"If residents still cannot sell their cassava crops, the administration will help them find customers," he said.

According to Nguyen Tri Ngoc, director of MoNRE’s Department of Cultivation, many businesses are in need of cassava.

For example, demand for the root is still high at several food and animal feed processing lines.

Trinh Xuan Tuong, a cassava farmer in Long Ha Commune, Binh Phuoc Province, said his family had not been drastically affected by the ten-day suspension as harvest is not until November.

If Phuoc Long Factory is unable to buy his crops, he will still be able to sell to other factories in the nearby provinces or in neighbouring ones or dry the cassava for sale or personal use. — VNS