Thua Thien-Hue fishermen spend compensation on restoring fishing boats (Photo: VNA) Thua Thien – Hue (VNA) – The central province of Thua Thien – Hue is exerting every effort to complete compensation for locals affected by the marine environment incident last year, according to an official of the provincial People’s Committee.
To date, some 894.3 billion VND (39.3 million USD) out of a total of 950.5 billion VND (41.8 million USD) has been distributed to 39,870 victims.
Phu Vang district has the highest number of people receiving compensation with 7,396; followed by Phu Loc with 6,765 people.
Local authorities have also directed their people to use the compensation in right purposes to resume production, aquaculture and fishing activities, towards sustainable livelihoods.
Accordingly, the province has seen a year-on-year surge of 15 percent in the total aquatic farming and fishing output to 17,736 tonnes in the last five months.
Of the total, aquaculture contributed over 2,700 tonnes, up 4.4 percent, while seafood catch hit 14,942 tonnes, increasing nearly 18 percent against the same period last year, showing the recovery of the locality’s aquaculture and fishing after the marine environment incident.
[Thua Thien-Hue’s fishing output surges after maritime environment incident]
The mass fish deaths were first reported on April 6, 2016 when a large number of fish washed ashore in Ha Tinh province. It was also spotted in Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue provinces.
About 70 tonnes of dead fish were found in the four provinces and Thua Thien-Hue alone reported 35 tonnes of farm-raised fish had died. The pollution also affected more than 260,000 people who earn their living from the sea.
In late June 2016, Taiwanese-invested Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Limited Company admitted responsibility for the incident and pledged 11.5 trillion VND (500 million USD) in compensation.-VNA
