VietNamNet Bridge – The serious encroachment of sand sediment along Lach Bang Sea Port in Tinh Gia District of central Thanh Hoa Provine has been blocking many cargo ships and fishing vessels as they try to approach the port.
The serious encroachment of sand sediment along Lach Bang Sea Port in Tinh Gia District of central Thanh Hoa Provine has been blocking many cargo ships and fishing vessels as they try to approach the port.— Photo nongnghiep.vn |
With a convenient geographic location, Lach Bang Sea Port is the biggest point for docking and fisheries trading in the North Central area as well as in Thanh Hoa Province. Normally, the port can serve up to 800 vessels annually, but in the past few years only about 500 ships have been able to enter the port each year.
In 2016, the total amount of goods transported to the Lach Bang Sea Port was 246,000 tonnes.
Along the Hai Binh sea shore in Tinh Gia District, hundreds of ships lay still on a recent day. On the Lach Bang wharf, small boats formed a long line – they had no goods to transport to hore.
Nguyen Van Dong, owner of two fishing ships in Hai Binh Commune, said his ships have been unable to sail since the end of the Tet holidays (Viet Nam’s Lunar New Year festival).
“We have to wait for the water level to rise to be able to sail the ships. Sand sediments along the sea port could easily strand the ships,” he told Natural Resources (Tai Nguyen Moi Truong) Newspaper.
But even if he were able to send his ships to sea, he would still worry.
“When the ships return, if the water level is not high enough, we can’t dock near the shore to unload the fish. We might have to use smaller boats and transport the goods to other ports, but then the fish would be rotten,” Dong said. “Many other ship owners suffer from the same problems. We all can’t sail up.”
Cao Thanh Thuan, another crew member of a fishing ship, said that his ship’s propeller was broken when trying to approach the Lach Bang Port.
“It took us quite a while to send the ship onshore for repair. If this situation continues, big ships will find other ports for their trading and skip this port,” Thuan said.
He said the fact that many big ships can’t approach the port meant the amount of fish imported to the shore had fallen considerably. That also means processing enterprises are in great shortage of materials for their production.
Ngo Van Chinh, a land official in Hai Binh Commune, said the commune has some 205 ships and vessels and most of the 1,300 residents of the commune make ends meet through offshore fishing, fisheries trading and processing.
Need for dredging
“We wish relevant authorities would quickly develop a plan for sand dredging along the creeks of the Lach Bang Sea Port so that all these difficulties can be eliminated,” Chinh said.
Mai Xuan Chau, head of the agriculture and rural development department of Tinh Gia District, said the district’s Enterprises Association had sent a document to the district’s People’s Committee, asking for permission to collect donations from members of the association and ship owners in Hai Thanh, Hai Binh communes to support the dredging.
The district’s People’s Committee has requested the Thanh Hoa Province’s People’s Committee and relevant sectors quickly launch sand and rock dredging along the port, Chau said.
Source: VNS