The Vietnam Fisheries Society (Vinafis) has requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to urgently nullify a license for Vinh Tan 1 Power Company Ltd. to discharge nearly one million cubic meters of dredged sediments into the waters off Binh Thuan Province.

The waters of Vinh Tan.

In Official Dispatch No. 79/HNC-PTBV signed by chairman of VINAFIS Nguyen Viet Thang, VINAFIS proposed License No. 1517/GP-BTNMT issued on June 23 be retracted and the ministry establish an independent inspection team to survey and assess environmental impacts of sediments including mud, sand and shells on the sea and review the objectivity and integrity of those issuing License No. 1517/GP-BTNMT.

VINAFIS said the coastal fishing grounds off Binh Thuan Province are home to scarce marine species such as lobsters, crustaceans and mollusks. Hon Cau Marine Protected Area, which is eight kilometers from the area where Vinh Tan 1 Power Company will dump sediments, is home to coral reefs, seaweed and marine creatures.

Together with Binh Dinh Province, Binh Thuan Province owns one-third of the nation’s shrimp farms nationwide and is a large supplier of breeder shrimps for other localities, creating thousands of jobs.

VINAFIS’s official dispatch pointed out six reasons for not dumping waste into the sea and asked the ministry to verify contents of License No. 1517/GP-BTNMT.

Firstly, beside mud and sand, waste from dredging the seabed to develop a turning basin near the special-use port for the Vinh Tan 1 Thermal Power Plant also contains toxic substances.

Sand and pebble can sink onto the seabed within several days, but mud might be carried away by currents, waves, tides and storms towards Hon Cau Marine Protected Area.

Moreover, there are five thermal power plants in Binh Thuan Province and the dumping of waste of Vinh Tan 1 project into the sea can set a bad precedent.

Dredging activity near estuaries can also cause landslides.

The Law of the Sea allows the dumping of waste into the sea but requires environmental impact assessment reports. Besides, waste must be dumped offshore instead of coastal waters.

VINAFIS said environmental impact assessment reports must be passed around for public comment. However, according to VINAFIS, the issue had been kept in the dark until the license was issued.

Official disciplined over plan for waste dumping into sea

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has told the Industrial Policy and Strategy Institute to take disciplinary measures against Ha Quoc Quan, director of the institute’s Center for Investment and Technology Transfer Consultancy, for his involvement in a controversial plan to dump around one million tons of dredged sediments into the sea.

According to local media reports, the institute, a unit of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, has suspended Quan for 15 days after the ministry had worked with the institute to look into information about conflict of interests. Quan is holding the post of director of the Center for Investment and Technology Transfer Consultancy but he is also serving as general director of Vietnam Ports Construction Consultant JS Company.

This is in violation of Article 37 of the amended Anti-Corruption Law and the Law on Civil Servants, which ban civil servants from running businesses.

The Center for Investment and Technology Transfer Consultancy served as a consultant for a plan for dumping around one million cubic meters of mud, sand, shells and other sediments dredged from a turning basin of Vinh Tan 1 thermo-power station in Binh Thuan Province. But later the plan was transferred to Quan’s company.

SGT