Sea pollution-affected fishermen in Thua Thien-Hue get support

Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) – The Government will provide 2,000 tonnes of rice from the national rice reserve to the central province of Thua Thien-Hue to support local fishermen whose livelihoods have been seriously affected by the recent sea environment incident caused by Formosa Ha Tinh.

Beneficiaries, including fishing boat owners, households with members woking in fishing boats under 90CV, and household living on fish breeding and fishery logistic services, each will receive 15kg of rice every month for a maximum duration of six months.

Besides this latest distribution of rice, the province has so far already been supported with 800 tonnes of rice and 15.5 billion VND to help locals in accordance to the Government’s decision 772/QD-TTg issued on May 9, 2016.

The provincial Vietnam Fatherland Front chapter has also collected 8.55 trillion VND and 25 tonnes of rice and handed it over to locals.

A number of critical measures have also been rolled out to deal with consequences of the incident.

According to the initial evaluation, the incident, which caused mass fish deaths along the coasts of four central provinces, affected 2,939 boats supporting 6,212 households and 30,450 people.

Together with disrupted fishing activities, local fishermen also lost the contents of 1,240 farmed fish pens containing 136,608kg of fish. Meanwhile, the long-term environment damage has yet been fully evaluated.

Currently, 195 fish pens belonging to 97 households in Thua Thien-Hue are being maintained that contain dozens of tonnes of live fish. However, traders have all refuse to buy the fish fearing they might be contaminated.-VNA