VietNamNet Bridge - The increase in the number of big farms which do outsourcing for CP Group has contributed to serious pollution in many localities.

As CP Group, an agribusiness from Thailand, has been expanding its business in Vietnam for many years, the number of pig farms which raise pigs to provide to CP has soared.

CP Vietnam (CPV) has been transferring closed husbandry technology to Vietnamese farmers. About 3,000 farms have been set up nationwide, creating 400,000 jobs.

With no waste treatment systems, the waste from many of the pig farms as been discharged directly to the environment for many years. Analysts pointed out that the waste is one of the three main reasons behind pollution of the Buoi River.

The Vietnam Environment Administration (VEA) on May 17 issued a decision on imposing a VND3.9 billion fine on three companies which violated environment laws and discharged untreated waste water to the environment, causing the mass fish deaths in early May.

The three companies included Hoa Binh Sugar JSC, Hoa Binh Cassava Starch Plant and the pig farm for CP Group owned by Nguyen Ngoc Sang. 

The 2-hectare farm, set up 5-6 years ago, specializing in breeding pigs to provide to CP Group, has been forced to pay a fine of VND194 million and be suspended for three months.

The increase in the number of big farms which do outsourcing for CP Group has contributed to serious pollution in many localities.

A local man said the penalty on the pig farm is too light if compared with what the farm has caused to the local environment.

“The farm has been discharging waste directly to the environment for years,” he said. “With huge profit estimated at billions of dong a year, the penalty is not heavy enough to deter them.”

The farm, as seen by reporters, was just 200-300 meters from the nearest house. 

Under current laws, livestock farms must be at least 500 meters from residential quarters.

Not far from Sang’s farm, there was another farm taking shape. Locals feared with the loose management of local authorities, the locality would become a ‘hot spot’ for pollution in the near future.

"The pollution caused by pig farming is a complicated problem. If it cannot be settled immediately, it will become a danger,” said Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Animal Husbandry Department.

“Any pig farm discovered as causing pollution and having no solution will be forced to shut down,” Duong said.

The official said that if Vietnam does not try to stop problems soon, it will fall into the same situation as China. 

Dan Viet