Fishes raised by farmers along the Da River in the northern province of Hoa Binh died en masse during the past week, causing great losses.

A farmer takes the dead fish out of the Da River. Fish died en masse during the past week creating difficulties for local farmers. — Photo kinhtedothi.vn

Between  40-80 per cent of the fishes in each cage were killed.

The Hoa Binh Hydroelectric Plant conducted its regulations of reservoir operation and opened three gates to discharge water from the reservoirs. As a result, the fishes’ living environment was changed suddenly leading to their death, according to local authorities.

Phung Tat Thang is one of the farmers suffering losses.

He is raising 3,000 small hemibagrus with weight of about 8 grammes each, and 10 tonnes of big hemibagrus with weight of 2.5-3 kilogrammes each. He also raises 18 cages of carps with a weight of 2-3kg each, and all were going to be harvested.

However, his fish died en masse in the past week leaving him with losses of more than VNĐ500 million (US$22,200).

“All of my family’s property is put on the fish cages. Now most of them have died, and I do not have any funds to pay for debts,” said Thang.

Nearly 40 other households raising fishes along the Da River in Ba Vì District are in the same situation.

Before discharging the water, the Hoa Binh Hydroelectric Plant informed local residents. And most households actively took measures to limit the damage. However, the number of fish is great. They were also too small for sale. Thus the losses could not be avoided completely.

Ba Vì District assigned workers to different households to estimate the losses exactly and give guidance to local farmers to clean the fishing cages. — VNS