VietNamNet Bridge – After receiving money from Sonadezi, which was compensation for the damages caused by its discharged waste water, the local people in Ba Cheo canal area have begun re-organizing their lives from scratch.

Waste firm agrees to cough up damages 

Most of the local people in the area have confirmed that they received money in compensation from Sonadezi Long Thanh on pre-Tet days. The sum of money they received from Sonadezi was modest, nearly VND12 billion.

Farming fish and poultry again to earn living

Tang Van Mien, a farmer in Tam An commune, said that he has received VND80 million in compensation from Sonadezi, but the modest sum of money does not make him happy, because he needs much more than that to revive his fish ponds and gardens which were damaged by the waste water from the company.

Mien was seen repairing the dykes of his ponds on a day, two weeks after he received the compensation. The farmer said he has eight shrimp and fish ponds, two fields and one garden, totaling 3,000 square meters in total.

“The damages are terrible. We have been sitting idle over the last several years. VND80 million is just 50 percent of the money I need to resume my production,” he said.

Tran Van Em, the owner of a 6-member family in hamlet 2, was seen chopping down the dead trees in his garden. Em said his orchard, comprising of 100 rambuttan, mango trees was dead because of the waste water from Sonadezi.

“I have decided to chop down all the dead trees and start from the very beginning,” Em said.

Ho Thi Ba, who was tending 50 ducks on Ba Cheo canal, which has got cleaner and greener, complained that her hundreds of ducks have died because of the dirty water.

Nguyen Van Tinh received VND1.2 billion in compensation, complained that his whole-life fortune has completely lost due to the waste water, and he does not know how much money and how much time he would need to found the fields, orchards and aquatic ponds.

The nightmare is over

The Ba Cheo canal links with the Dong Nai River which runs across the Tam An commune, creating a fertile land area. The bountiful crops in the fertile land brought the lives of comfort to local residents.

However, since the day Sonadezi began setting up its factory in the area, dividing the canal into two parts, the happy life of local people has ended.

An old man in Tam An commune said that the dirty untreated waste water from Sonadezi had been discharged to the Ba Cheo canal for the last many years until the day the discharging was caught red handed by the police.

“The trees then got withered because of the poisonous water, ducks and aquatic creatures died. It was so terrible,” said Phung Thi Din, an old woman in Tam An commune.

“At that time, we could not do anything to fix the problem, and we did not know to whom we should complain to stop the problem,” Din said.

It took Ba Cheo canal area residents more than one year to sue Sonadezi and claim for damages. “We wish that the nightmare is over, and such a thing will not come again,” said Le Van Mai, Deputy Chair of the Farmers’ Association, while recalling the terrible days.

The Ba Cheo canal now looks cleaner. A monitoring station is being built. This is a station of the network of monitoring stations installed by the Dong Nai provincial authorities, which would allow monitoring the quality of the waste water in the “hot spots”.

NLD