Quang Tri to finish sea environmental incident compensation in January

Quang Tri (VNA) – Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee of the central province of Quang Tri Ha Sy Dong has asked localities across the province to finish compensation for victims of the 2016 sea environmental incident in January 2018.

So far, Quang Tri has allocated 1.019 trillion VND to localities as compensation, 913 billion VND of which has been delivered to the affected.

Dong stressed that the payment must be made in a transparent way.

Quang Tri has sent inter-sectoral working groups to localities to make survey on seafood inventories after the incident, and gathered proposals of local households in dealing with the stockpile.

The sea environmental incident happened in April 2016 and caused serious damage to the environment and living conditions of coastal residents in four provinces of Ha Tinh, Quang Binh Quang Tri, Thua Thien-Hue.

The Taiwanese Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation claimed responsibility for the disaster, admitting that it had released toxic wastewater into the sea along these provinces.

It pledged to compensate more than 11.5 trillion VND (500 million USD) to support local fishermen and recover the polluted marine environment

So far, Quang Tri has focused on recovering locals’ livelihood by developing cultivation and breeding models in 16 coastal localities.

Fishing and fish farming in Quang Tri have also revived strongly. In 2017, the province’s offshore catch reached nearly 24,000 tonnes, up 8,240 tonnes from 2016. Meanwhile, its aquaculture production hit over 7,800 tonnes, a rise of 10 percent year on year.-VNA