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Vietnam says recovery from Formosa industrial disaster could take a decade

Formosa, which runs an US$11 billion steel plant, sullied more than 200km of coastline, killing more than 100 tonnes of fish and devastating the environment, jobs and economies of four provinces

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A man walks among dead fish lying on a beach in Quang Trach district. Photo: AFP
Reuters

Vietnam’s central region is expected to take a decade to completely recover from an industrial accident caused by a unit of a Taiwan conglomerate, which led to the Vietnam’s worst ever environmental disaster, the government said.

Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a unit of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics that runs an US$11 billion steel plant, sullied more than 200km of coastline in April, killing more than 100 tonnes of fish and devastating the environment, jobs and economies of four provinces.

Formosa had deliberately changed many of the contents of the two environmental impacts assessment reports approved in 2008
Vietnam’s environment ministry

Vietnam’s environment ministry said the firm had rectified 50 of 53 violations and was on its way to removing the biggest cause of the disaster, a highly toxic “wet” coking system that Formosa had used in a deliberate violation of its agreement.

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After months of mystery over the cause of the deaths of the fish, and public outrage against both the Hanoi government and one of the communist state’s largest investors, Formosa agreed in June to pay US$500 million in compensation.
The accident emboldened the Vietnamese public over the course of several months, with coordinated rallies in major cities and an outpouring of social media anger in a display of dissent on a scale not seen during the Communist Party’s 41 years of tight control of the country.
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Thousands of people from the affected region accuse the government of mishandling the disaster and the payment of compensation. Police were criticised for heavy-handed measures to break up street demonstrations.

The government always said it was doing everything it could to investigate the disaster and address the problem.

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