Paper factory pollution under scrutiny
Media reports this week said that a trial run of the plant at the company’s
under-construction factory in the Mekong Delta province’s Chau Thanh district
caused discharge of untreated wastewater on March 7, affecting nearby
households.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Vo Tuan Nhan said the
province’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment and other local
agencies had been told to co-ordinate with the ministry’s inspection team to
investigate and publish details of possible pollution.
He also instructed the company to furnish details of the plant’s trial
operation.
Speaking to Tuoi tre (Youth) newspaper, deputy director general of the VEA, Hoang
Van Thuc, said the ministry sent an inspection team to take charge of
monitoring and evaluating the improvements to be made to the treatment plant
next week.
The plant’s trials should be done within the factory, and no wastewater
should be released into the environment, he said.
Last December the VEA allowed the factory to begin testing the treatment
plant for the first time, but then stopped it due to pollution.
The 1.2 billion USD factory, situated in the Phu Huu A Industrial Cluster
along the Hau River, saw work begin in 2007, but completion has been delayed
several times.
It is designed to manufacture 330,000 tonnes of pulp and 420,000 tonnes of
packaging paper a year.
It is the largest paper factory in Vietnam and one of the five largest in
the world.-VNA