Vietnam authorities punish Taiwanese polluter

Hanoi - Government authorities have fined the Taiwanese-owned condiment company Vedan 7.7 million dollars for discharging thousands of cubic meters of pollutants into a river in southern Vietnam, officials said Wednesday. 'We have decided to punish Vedan for its violations,' said Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha. According to the decision released Tuesday, Vedan's factory in Dong Nai province must halt all sewage discharges for six months and can only resume operation when it satisfies regulations on waste treatment. Under Vietnamese law, Vedan is subject to a maximum fine of 16,000 dollars, but the government has ordered Vedan to retroactively pay 7.7 million dollars in wastewater fees it has evaded for the past 10 years. Local media report Vietnamese immigration police have prevented Vedan executives from leaving the country until the company remediates the environmental consequences of its actions. Vedan executives will reportedly not be personally charged with criminal violations. Inspectors accuse Vedan of discharging a total of 45,000 cubic metres of contaminated effluents over the past 10 years, effectively killing a 12-kilometre stretch of the Thi Vai River. 'The firm has repeatedly violated environmental regulations by dumping untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River since 1994,' said Ha. 'Vietnamese authorities have warned them, but things have not changed much.' Government inspectors found the company had broken 12 environmental codes. According to the government's web site, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered ministries and provinces in June to tighten monitoring of local as well as overseas companies in Vietnam and take action against companies that pollute the environment. 'Pollution in Vietnam has reached red-alert levels,' said Colonel Nguyen Xuan Ly, chief of the Environmental Police Agency. 'We will strengthen environmental inspections on both local and foreign companies.' According to Vietnamese law, discharging pollution or toxic substances into water and failing to take environmental measures despite orders from government agencies is subject to a fine of between 300 and 5,000 dollars for each violation, or between one and 10 years imprisonment.