VietNamNet Bridge – The developed caged fish farming once helped 100 households in Nghi Son Island in Tinh Gia district of Thanh Hoa province live well for about 20 years. However, the farming village now lives under the threat of the operating cement plant.

Fish die, farmers cry

When Kinh te Nong thon’s reporters arrived in Nghi Son island in mid September, they were surprised by the extraordinary quietness of Vung Ngoc area. Later, the reporters found out why more than one month ago, a lot of fish farmed in cages, died because of unknown reasons, which changed the well-off farmers here into the big debtors who owe the big sums of up to hundreds of millions of dong.

Tran Chi Quyet, a farmer in Bac Son hamlet said: “If we had come here several months ago, you would have seen a terrible scene: the dead fish made the whole water surface bear a white color. All of our great efforts have gone with the sea tide.”

He said that just within three days, from July 22 to 24, more than 40,000 fish (2-3 month old) farmed by 80 household, suddenly died, causing a loss of three billion dong.

Cement plant kills fish?

There were about 1000 fish cages farmed by 80 households in the hamlet, which created jobs and fed local people. Now, as fish have died, local residents have lost their daily bread.

When asked why so many fish have died, all people said the “culprit” is the Nghi Son cement plant. They have every reason to believe that the cement plant has killed fish. Since the cement plant began operation and built a pier near the bay, near the fish cases, more and more fish have died. Especially, when the cement plant dredges the bay, fish died in a massive scale. Some households reported that they lost 80-90 percent of fish, while others complained that all the fish died.

“We have reported the case to the local authorities which then sent staff to the site to examine the environment conditions and took fish for testing. However, the authorities then informed us their conclusion that the fish died not because of the dredging, but because the water environment got polluted and that fished died of the nervous necrosis,” Quyet said.

“However, the conclusion is really unreasonable. If the water was so polluted, we had not been so foolish to spend money on farming fish before,” he continued.

Owners turn into debtors

Most of the farmers here were not born into rich families. They only became well off after they made great efforts to farm fish and save money. In order to have capital for farming, they have to borrow money from banks, relatives, mortgaging their assets (land, orchards) for loans. And they have become penniless just overnight, after their valuable fish died of the cement production.

Tran Van Luan, a farmer in Trung Son hamlet, said that all of the 80 farming households in the locality still owe money to banks. Small debtors have borrowed 100 million dong from banks, while big debtors several billions of dong.

“Tran Van Vung, for example, owes several billion dong to banks, while I myself have borrowed 300 million dong from banks and 400 million dong from my relatives,” Luan said. “As fish all have died, I do not know where I can find money to pay my debts”.

Meanwhile, Tinh Gia district people’s committee’s Chair Nguyen Xuan Thuy has affirmed that the polluted water and VNN virus are the factors that made fish die, while this must not blamed on the Nghi Son cement plant.

The problem now is that local people do not believe in the conclusion by agencies, while local authorities have not made any further steps to settle the problem.

Source: Kinh te Nong thon