VietNamNet Bridge – More 220 households in Long Thanh District in southern Dong Nai Province were given pollution compensation money of about VND800 million (US$38,400) from the Taiwanese company Vedan.

According to Long Thanh District Farmers' Association, these households are from Phuoc Thai and Long Phuoc communes, where the river's water was proven seriously polluted, affecting local farmers' businesses as Vedan directly discharged untreated waste water into the Thi Vai river for years.

Vedan has completed transferring the total compensation amount of VND120 billion ($5.7 million) to the Farmers' Associations of Long Thanh and Nhon Trach districts, where nearly 6,000 households whose cultivated land and aquaculture breeding were affected.

In September 2008, Vedan Viet Nam was caught discharging untreated wastewater into Thi Vai River in southern Dong Nai province, causing serious pollution and heavy losses to thousands of fish-rearing households in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and HCM City.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News