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Formosa pollution compensation to be used on regeneration projects
  • | hanoimoi, dtinews.vn | May 02, 2019 03:15 PM
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked authorities in the four central provinces affected by the Formosa disaster in 2016 to use the compensation to develop fisheries and environmental projects.


  

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Decision 476 issued on May 1 by the PM stated that the people's committees in Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue must use the compensation money to invest in building and upgrading fishery logistic facilities and restoring and regenerating aquatic ecosystems and aquatic resources.

The local authorities must upgrade the infrastructure and equipment for the fishermen so that they can continue to go out fishing. Canals will be dredged up for better transportation and more supporting facilities will be built.

In the same time, the authorities must also restore the marine ecosystem including the coral reefs.

It is estimated that the projects will cost VND400bn (USD17.2m) for each province. The projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment was asked to oversee the implementation in four provinces in order to deal with possible problems as quickly as possible.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was asked to review the scale, goals, spending and progress of building and upgrading fishery logistic facilities project.

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a steel plant built by the Taiwanese corporation Formosa Plastics, admitted that untreated water was dumped directly into the sea from its steel plant in Ha Tinh was the main cause of the deaths of hundreds of tonnes of fish in waters off four central provinces in 2016. The environmental disaster affected some 100,000 fishermen and locals in the fishing, seafood and tourism industries, according to a government report.

Formosa had paid USD500m in compensation to people that had their livelihoods affected by the disaster.

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