Local people living along Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province are trying to adapt to the scant numbers of fish since the river was heavily polluted by Vedan Company eight years ago.

Duong Van Sang has recently tried raising clams on the Thi Vai River but they they all died

In 2008, the monosodium glutamate producer Vedan Vietnam admitted to discharging untreated waste into the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province. According to the HCM City National University’s Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources, Vedan was responsible for the pollution of 2,700ha in seafood cultivation areas in Dong Nai and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces and HCM City.

In 2010, Vedan agreed to pay VND120bn (USD5.5m) in compensation to 5,000 households.

Years later, the polluted Thi Vai River still hasn't recovered. Thousands of fishermen living in Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts have to go to other provinces to find work.

Local Tran Trung Tinh said there was once a thriving fishing village. Thi Vai River had big fish and sometimes the fishermen could even catch lobster. But after the river was polluted, people either went to HCM City to find luck or worked in other provinces as day labourers.

Some people like Le Trung Chanh and his wife still try to live on fishing but are struggling. Chanh said he was able to catch 2 kilos of small fish and shrimps. "There's only few fish living in the river now," he said.

Long Tho Village had over 200 hectares of surface water that can be used for farming before the pollution. After being compensated, many farmers decided to return to aquaculture but their farmed shrimps and oysters keep dying for unknown reasons.

Tran Tien Nhan, chairman of Farmer Association of Long Tho Commune, said about 300 households returned to fishing and aquaculture but the river hadn't been completely clean.

In the meantime, the local authorities have no support policies for farmers. "The provincial authorities provided compensation to everyone. But farmers had to take care of themselves after that," said Nguyen Thai Dung from the Dong Nai Province Farmers’ Association.

Dtinews