At least we know why the Vietnamese are busy stealing our fish... Turns out a whole lot of their fish are dead.
Toxic Fish in Vietnam Idle a Local Industry and Challenge the State
By RICHARD C. PADDOCKJUNE 8, 2016
Dead fish on a beach in the central province of Quang Binh, Vietnam. Pollution from a nearby steel plant is suspected in the die-off, and protests across the country are testing the government. Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
NHAN TRACH, Vietnam —
Since a devastating fish kill blighted the waters along 120 miles of coastline in central Vietnam, hundreds of people are believed to have fallen ill from eating poisoned fish.
Here in the fishing village of Nhan Trach, the squid that sustain the local economy have virtually disappeared. And a fishing ban has left hundreds of traps sitting unused on the beach and dozens of small fishing boats idle.
“We are so angry,” said Pham Thi Phi, 65, who operates a fishing boat in Nhan Trach with her husband and three grown sons. “If we knew who put the poison in the ocean, we would like to kill them. We really need to have an answer from the government on whether the ocean is totally clean and the fish are safe to eat.”
While the immediate cause appears to have been toxic waste from a nearby steel mill, fury over the episode has exploded into a national issue, posing the biggest challenge to the authoritarian government since
a spate of anti-Chinese riots in 2014. Protesters demanding government action have marched in major cities and coastal communities over the past six weeks, escalating what had been a regional environmental dispute into a test of government accountability.
But two months after the fish started washing up on beaches here, the government has yet to announce the cause of the disaster or identify the toxin that killed marine life and poisoned coastal residents.
The government’s failure to respond and its previous support for the Taiwan-owned steel plant at the heart of the crisis have fueled widespread suspicion of corruption and the hidden influence of foreign interests at the expense of Vietnamese livelihoods, a potent mix that challenges the legitimacy of Communist Party rule.
Ho Huu Sia, 67, who buys and dries fish in the Vietnamese village of Nhan Trach, with his wife, Nguyen Thi Tam. His daughter fell ill after eating tainted fish, and with no local catch, his livelihood is threatened. Credit Richard C. Paddock/The New York Times
“Quite simply, in Vietnam, human life is less important than the political life of the government and government institutions,” said Nguyen Thi Bich Nga, an activist in Ho Chi Minh City. “In this way, we can explain all that is unusual in this country.”
The government has said little about the marine die-off while cracking down on the protests, which have been called every Sunday since May 1, when thousands of people took to the streets of Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other cities. More than 500 people have been arrested, and demonstrators have been beaten by the police.
“The response by the government has been one of ineptitude,” said Carlyle Thayer, a Vietnam analyst at the Australian Defense Force Academy. He said the fish kill was the most serious environmental issue to confront the government in several years and reflected poorly on the government of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who took office in April.
Last month, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
urged the government to avoid excessive use of force, citing “increasing levels of violence” against the protesters.
But the protests have continued.
On Sunday, more than 1,000 people turned out in a coastal district of Nghe An Province, north of the steel plant, to demonstrate. Many wore T-shirts bearing a fish skeleton. Some carried signs reading, “Fish need clean water, citizens need transparency.”
“It seems the government tries to cover up for the culprit,” the Rev. Anthony Nam, a Catholic priest and protest leader in Nghe An, said by telephone. “We will protest until the government says what caused the spill.”
In Nhan Trach, about 40 miles south of the steel factory, the dead and dying fish first appeared in early April, floating in the surf and washing up on the beach. Initially, it seemed like a windfall, and many people here ate and sold them. The fish kept coming, tons of them, day after day for more than a month, residents said.
“If we knew who put the poison in the ocean, we would like to kill them.”
Pham Thi Phi, 65, fisherwoman in Nhan Trach
“Some of the fish were dead; some were dying,” said Ho Huu Sia, 67, who buys and dries fish for a living. “We ate the fish that were still alive. We ate the fish for two weeks.”
His daughter, Ho Thi Dao, 32, said she became ill, experiencing
vomiting,
diarrhea and
dizziness. She went to the local clinic and received intravenous fluids. She said she met others there who also suffered poisoning.
Belatedly, the government announced that aquatic life had been poisoned along the coastline of four provinces. The authorities warned people not to eat fish and ordered a halt to fishing.
As compensation, officials distributed bags of rice and gave fishermen 50,000 dong, or about $2.20.
“We are just sitting with tears running down our cheeks looking out at the ocean,” said Ms. Phi, who has been fishing from Nhan Trach all her life. “What can we do with 50,000 dong?”
Coastal residents and journalists quickly accused the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel plant, which opened in December, of being the culprit.
According to news reports, the fish kill happened after the factory washed unspecified cleaning chemicals through its wastewater pipeline. A company representative seemed to confirm the suspicions in April when he said it would not be surprising if the factory’s wastewater harmed marine life.
“You have to decide whether to catch fish and shrimp or to build a modern steel industry,” he told reporters. “Even if you are the prime minister, you cannot choose both.”
Photo
A pile of squid traps on the beach at Nhan Trach in May. With the squid population there virtually wiped out, the traps go unused. Credit Richard C. Paddock/The New York Times
His comments incited a flurry of criticism on social media and spawned a popular hashtag on social media, #ichoosefish.
The company later argued that it met Vietnam’s environmental standards and said that the spokesman had been fired.
Company officials did not respond to requests for comment.
The government has been just as reticent.
At first, it suggested a toxic algae bloom was responsible. In mid-May, Pham Cong Tac, deputy science and technology minister, told Vietnamese news outlets that the ministry had a “convincing scientific basis” to explain the fish deaths, but he did not disclose what it was.
Last week, Mai Tien Dung, minister and head of the government office, said that the authorities had identified the cause but indicated that they could not tell the public because an investigation was continuing.
The lack of information has only fueled the protesters’ anger.
Villagers say the authorities collected water samples immediately after the episode, and foreign experts say test results should have been known within days.
Nguyen Hoang Anh, a university professor in Hanoi, said the government should have immediately revealed the toxin, especially to the poisoning victims and their doctors.
“It’s not fair,” she said. “It’s not ethical. It’s a crime.”
She said the cover-up had the potential to make the fish kill Vietnam’s Chernobyl, the 1986 nuclear disaster that contributed to the unraveling of the Soviet Union.
That is what the government most fears, analysts say, and it is why it acts quickly and at times brutally to suppress protests before they ignite a popular uprising
But critics say the government has another motive. The government has supported the steel plant, giving the company a sweetheart deal, including tax incentives and a bargain price for the property, to build on the coast.
Two years ago, while the factory was under construction, it became a prime target of the riots over China’s placement of an oil rig in waters off Vietnam in the South China Sea. More than 200 factories owned by Chinese and other foreign companies were looted and set ablaze around the country.
But the worst rioting occurred at Formosa, where four people were killed. The company is based in Taiwan, but thousands of laborers from mainland China were building the factory. Protesters stopped buses, pulled off Chinese passengers and beat them.
The authorities have been more careful not to let the current protests get out of hand. But even if they can be quelled, the economic costs have continued to mount.
On a recent morning, more than a dozen fish traders gathered at a drink shop across from the beach here. A few played board games. There was nothing to do but kill time, one said.
Around the corner, Phan Dinh Son, 49, sat in his all-too-quiet open-air shop. He used to sell hundreds of blocks of ice a day. Now he sells about 20, he said. A separate business buying and trading shellfish has been suspended because no one wants to eat local fish.
“
The fish market is empty,” he said. “I would hope the government and the party would come up with a solution and give a clear answer so we can do our business.”
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Damn. Central Viet coast are like 1/3 of their coast line. No wonder these guys are everywhere. They want to be like China they got the whole package including having to deal with the pollution.
More about the Vietnamese Fish kill.
Protests, Suspicion In Vietnam Over Government's Response To Fish Kill
May 30, 20167:10 AM ET
Heard on
Morning Edition
Michael Sullivan
While visiting Vietnam last week, President Obama urged the government to ease its crackdown on dissent. But police have used force to break up recent environmental protests.
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
On his visit to Vietnam last week, President Obama urged the government there to ease up on dissent. But it's a tough habit for the leadership of the one-party state to break. Their latest challenge - not political, but environmental - a recent fish kill that's affected millions of people. From Hanoi, Michael Sullivan has more.
MICHAEL SULLIVAN, BYLINE: At a small market near Hanoi's Truc Bach Lake, the one Arizona Senator John McCain landed in when he was shot down here almost 50 years ago, the meat and vegetable vendors are busy. The fish sellers - not so much.
HOANG BICH LIEN: (Foreign language spoken).
SULLIVAN: "My business is down about 50 percent," Hoang Bich Lien says as a compressor pumps oxygen into her tanks. "People are worried. They don't want to buy fish," she says, "because they've heard on the news about the fish deaths."
She's talking about the massive fish kill last month in Ha Tinh province, 200 miles to the south, tons of fish washing up on shore. And suspicion quickly focused on a massive discharge of waste from a new Taiwanese steel mill, where the management seemed oddly indifferent.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHOU CHOU FAN: (Foreign language spoken).
SULLIVAN: "Look," company spokesman Chou Chun Fan told reporters, "Vietnam needs to choose whether to catch fish and shrimp or to build a state of the art steel mill. You can't have both."
Those remarks infuriated many Vietnamese, confirming what some had long suspected, that their country puts economic development ahead of the health of its citizens.
NGUYEN QUANG KIEN: (Foreign language spoken).
SULLIVAN: Nguyen Quang Kien is 36, an amateur environmentalist who says he's not against his government. He's just for the environment, and he's got a lot of company.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in foreign language).
SULLIVAN: Angry but peaceful demonstrators took to the streets here in the capital after the fish kill and the subsequent comments from the steel company, carrying signs in Vietnamese and English that read - we choose fish. Demonstrations, not just here in Hanoi, but in the country's commercial capital Ho Chi Minh City, or Saigon, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
SULLIVAN: Police waded in to the Ho Chi Minh protests, beating some and detaining others, the time-tested method for dealing with dissent here while remaining tone deaf to public sentiment. Take this press conference. When a reporter asked the deputy environment minister about reports of high levels of heavy metals in the water farther down the coast near the tourist destination of Hue.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken).
SULLIVAN: "Don't ask me that question," he said. "Asking that question hurts the nation's interests. Turn off your camera. We'll discuss it in private."
And then he got up and left.
Nguyen Quang A is a frequent critic and sometimes involuntary guest of his government. He was one of those prevented from meeting President Obama in Hanoi last week. He thinks the government is hoping this whole thing just goes away. But he doesn't think it will.
NGUYRN QUANG A: No, no, no because it's related to their daily life of millions - millions of people. People are going to react, one way or another.
SULLIVAN: Not just in Hanoi and Saigon, he says, but people in the seaside provinces where the fish kills occurred. It's not about politics, he says. It's an emotional issue and an economic one.
QUANG A: The people directly affected in those four provinces - they get frustrated. Millions of people - they have relatives everywhere. And that can start a process which is very, very dangerous for authority and is not good for the society.
SULLIVAN: To this day, there's been no credible explanation for the fish kill. The government says it was caused by red tide. But nobody is buying it. And the Taiwanese steel company - they've apologized for the manager's remarks. They won't comment on the rest. For NPR News, I'm Michael Sullivan in Hanoi.
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http://www.npr.org/2016/05/30/47942...ietnam-over-governments-response-to-fish-kill
Vietnam’s mass fish kill isn’t simply an environmental disaster
By
Xuan Loc Doan on May 13, 2016 in Asia Times News & Features,
Southeast Asia
In the mass fish die-off on the country’s central coastal region, the Vietnamese government is faced with not only Vietnam’s worst ever environmental disaster but also widespread social unrest.
Millions of dead fish have washed up across some 200 km of the coast of Vietnam’s four central provinces since early last month.
According to a figure given by an official on May 5, the disaster had killed at least 100 tons of fish. This was based on the reports from the four affected provinces, namely Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue, and excluded dead fish that remained in the water.
Other farm-raised fish, shrimps and clams in this central coastal region, which is regarded as the country’s most vulnerable and poorest area and whose coastal population mainly lives by fishing and aquaculturing, have also died en mass. The life of these fishermen and aquafarmers was already difficult, and is now even tougher following the plague.
Faced with the seriousness of the matter, on April 28, the country’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Tran Hong Ha, called the mass fish kill a “very huge and serious environment disaster.”
In a statement issued on the same day, the government also acknowledged that the fish die-off caused economic and environmental damages, hurt the fisheries industry, and particularly created puzzlement among citizens.
In a meeting with officials from different ministries and the four affected provinces in Ha Tinh on May 1, Vietnam’s newly elected Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc reiterated the gravity of the fish kill and tasked related agencies to investigate the phenomenon and deal with the consequences it caused.
Yet, though it is a very grave disaster with huge environmental, social, economic and political impacts, Vietnamese authorities were very sluggish to react to it. They only started to deal with the issue three weeks after the news about the mass fish deaths were widely reported and huge public outcries aired on social media.
Dead fish in Vietnam’s central coastal region
Widespread social unrest
The severity of the catastrophe and especially the authorities’ slow and inefficient reaction to it have not merely made the Vietnamese public puzzled. They have, in fact, sparked a widespread and deep anger among the people.
Their resentment was compounded by other issues.
One of these is the comment by Chou Chun Fan, Formosa Ha Tinh’s public relations director on April 25 that Vietnam had to choose between catching fish and building a modern steel industry as it could not have both.
Formosa Ha Tinh is a multi-billion dollar steel plant, run by a subsidiary of Taiwan-based Formosa Plastics Corporation, which has a bad record of environmental issues worldwide. Though this official was sacked and the company apologized, his blunt remark has sparked a wave of ire among the Vietnamese public.
Many believe the Formosa steel plant, which has a 1.5 km-long waste pipe running into the sea, is the source of the disaster even though the authorities have so far said there is no direct link between its discharged waste water and the fish die-off.
Another issue is that their government has failed to find out what or who caused this catastrophe. For many among them, including several experts, the authorities already knew the cause and the culprit of the disaster but did not want to let the Vietnamese people know.
All of these factors have incensed the public. In a country, where state media is closely controlled and public protest is strictly prohibited, people have used social media, notably Facebook, to express their rage and dismay over not only the government’s sluggish and inefficient response to the disaster but also its aloofness, incompetence and lack of transparency and accountability.
Downtown Hanoi fish death protest (Radio Free Asia photo)
On May 1 and May 8, in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city and in some other places, despite knowing they would be violently disrupted, thousands of people from different ages and professional backgrounds took to the streets to protest against Formosa and call for a clean environment and a transparent government.
Unlike previous protests, these rallies gathered more people. Some of the participants are
reportedly former and current journalists of state-run newspapers, which are not allowed to report these protests. One of these is Phan Thị Châu, who formerly worked at Phu Nu Newspaper and whose husband is a former deputy editor of Tuoi Tre Newspaper.
Châu was one of many demonstrators arrested by the police in Ho Chi Minh City on May 8. In an entry on her Facebook page afterward, she wrote that though detained, she was really pleased because thanks to her arrest she could witness first-hand all that occurred, enabling her to feel and share the pain with others. This entry, entitled “
Thanks God, I was held,” received more than 23 thousand likes and 10 thousand shares two days after being published.
Judging by the fury manifested on social media and in those rallies, many Vietnamese people are becoming increasingly puzzled and dissatisfied not only with the government’s handling of the mass fish death but also the one-party regime’s political, economic and social policies.
Amidst the fish die-off crisis, a teacher in Ha Tinh, the most affected province, composed a poem that describes odd, weird and sad things currently happening in Vietnam – with one line saying that “the sea is dying” – and a uncertain and pessimistic future the country is facing. The poem published on her Facebook page has quickly gone viral, with many sharing it via Facebook and other websites. Some have also
turned it into a song, recorded and published it on
YouTube.
The reason why this poem has widely and immensely touched the Vietnamese both inside and outside Vietnam is that it closely reflects the reality of their country.
A clean government
Faced with the public’s widespread discontent and anger, though very sluggish, Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s government has shown certain efforts and commitments to deal with the disaster. These include its promise to probe its cause, find its culprits and “not shield anyone found causing the pollution.”
Yet, there are question marks over whether the real offenders will be publicly identified or punished because Vietnam’s one-party system greatly lacks transparency and accountability.
Moreover, the true root causes of the disaster are deep and numerous. While the fish die-off in these four coastal provinces is an unprecedented phenomenon in Vietnam, the mass fish kill has occurred in other places in the country. For instance, tons of farm-raised fish in Bach Lang River and Buoi River in the central province of
Thanh Hoa have died in the last few days. The severe contamination of these rivers caused by factories’ unprocessed waste water is identified as the primary cause of this mass fish death.
To deal with these environmental disasters, the Vietnamese government must reconsider its development policy. It can no longer industrialize at all costs because the country will pay heavy environmental prices for such a careless and irresponsible industrialization.
Furthermore, in a way, like its coastal seas and rivers, Vietnam’s political environment is also severely polluted and corrupted.
The country’s increasingly severe environmental degradation will not be effectively dealt with unless its political system is cleaned up. This only occurs if the hierarchy within the ruling Communist Party is willing to undertake major political reforms, allowing its 90 million population to have a greater say and role in the policies and matters that directly affect their life, society and country.
Judging by their reaction, it is apparent that an open, clean, transparent, democratic and accountable government is also what many Vietnamese people are calling for in these days when their country is facing huge environmental catastrophes.
RELATED STORY: State TV attack unlikely to tune out dissent over fish kill
Xuan Loc Doan is a research fellow at the Global Policy Institute. He completed a PhD in International Relations at Aston University, UK in 2013. His areas of interest and research include Vietnam’s domestic and foreign policy, ASEAN’s relations with major powers, and international politics in the Asia-Pacific region.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the view of Asia Times.
(Copyright 2016 Asia Times Holdings Limited, a duly registered Hong Kong company. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)
http://atimes.com/2016/05/vietnams-mass-fish-kill-isnt-simply-an-environmental-disaster/
We gonna need more Dynamites if this situation doesn't improve.
