Vietnam - A second Vedan case

The Farmers vs Vedan case has almost faded into oblivion as the Taiwanese-invested monosodium glutamate producer has completed compensation payouts totaling around VND220 billion for fish farmers over its severe pollution of the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai Province.

But since last week, the name of Vedan has resurfaced in local media. Just wait, it is not about another environmental violation committed by the company, but another firm where an infringement of similar nature took place.

Vedan discharged untreated wastewater into the Thi Vai River for many years, stripping thousands of families in Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau and HCMC of their subsistence farming and fishing. Meanwhile, the latest case involving Sonadezi Long Thanh, an affiliate of Sonadezi Corporation, seems to be far more worrisome and serious than Vedan. Sonadezi Corporation is owned by the State and the Ministry of Public Security’s environmental crimes police, aka C49, caught red-handed the central wastewater treatment facility of Sonadezi Long Thanh, a member of Sonadezi Corporation, releasing 9,300 cubic meters of improperly treated wastewater with a strong foul odor into a nearby canal a day.

The implications are indeed unnerving. Sonadezi Long Thanh as a State-owned enterprise should have set a perfect role model for companies in the private sector that has long been implicitly believed to only seek after quick gains at the expense of the environment. Though the environment police probe is still underway and Sonadezi management has thus far denied the allegations, all evidence shown in the media is against the company.

Phan Huu Vinh, deputy head of the C49 Department, is quoted by Thanh Niennewspaper as saying the C49 police coordinated with local law enforcement forces to spend one month keeping a close watch on the 10,000 cubic meters/day wastewater treatment plant inside the Sonadezi Long Thanh Industrial Park.

The investigators found a 600-meter-long, 0.4-meter-in-diameter pipeline hidden about one meter underground and connected to the bio-treatment pool with a total holding capacity of 35,000 cubic meters. They then collected wastewater samples at the endpoint of the pipeline in the pool and an outlet where wastewater was released into the Ba Cheo Canal. The sample collected at the pipeline endpoint was thick, black water but the sample garnered at the said outlet was dilute.

This led the investigators to discover a total of three outlets, with two of them used to pump water from the canal into the pool to dilute the wastewater and one near the bottom of the pool utilized to discharge the diluted wastewater. During rain and ebb tide, staff of the treatment plant opened valves to flush the wastewater into the canal, Vinh said.

“After the test results showed the two wastewater samples did not meet the environment criteria, I decided to let our team storm into the plant on August 3, at 11 p.m., the usual time for wastewater discharge,” said Vinh. “And we caught them in the act.”

Previously Sonadezi Long Thanh’s wastewater treatment facility had a track record of environmental violations. Le Viet Hung, director of the Dong Nai Department of Natural Resources and Environment, told Tuoi Tre newspaper this wastewater treatment plant had been several times been fined for environmental infringements. It paid two fines of VND17 million each in 2009 because the quality of its discharged wastewater was two to five times worse than permitted. Another fine of VND31 million was issued last year for falsifying its environmental impact assessment, and transporting and treating toxic waste not in compliance with regulations.

In February this year, the Vietnam Environment Administration found it discharging improperly treated wastewater and imposed a VND75-million fine, Hung said. Earlier, in late April 2007, Sonadezi Long Thanh settled VND121 million in damage claims for 67 families in Tam An Commune, according to Phap Luat newspaper.

It is pretty clear that the police’s recent discovery is yet another intentional violation committed by Sonadezi Long Thanh. Tran Quang Thoa, deputy general director of Sonadezi Service Joint Stock Company, the operator of the wastewater treatment plant, and three staff members acknowledged the infringement at the scene, claiming this was due to an unforeseen technical glitch with the disinfecting and discoloring systems and a malfunctioning of the bio-treatment pool caused by hot wastewater from two textile and dyeing factories, reports Thanh Nien.

Surprisingly, Sonadezi Corporation leaders, including chairwoman and general director Do Thi Thu Hang, who is also a deputy of the National Assembly – the country’s law-making body, have turned down the allegations. “In principle, Sonadezi always does just what is permitted by law,” Hang told Phap Luat on the sidelines of the National Assembly session on August 5, a day before lawmakers ended their two-week meeting in Hanoi.

The 67 factories that are the wastewater treatment facility’s clients must be sitting on a knife-edge at the moment. “Before setting up shop here (in Sonadezi Long Thanh Industrial Park), we trusted what had been promoted by Sonadezi about its wastewater treatment plant. Now they are found to have violated environmental rules and if the infringement is so serious that the facility is suspended, we as producers will be affected,” Thanh Nien quoted a leader of a textile firm, who asked not to be named.

Pending the conclusion of an investigation by C49, Sonadezi is running the risk of paying hefty fines for the authorities and large compensation amounts to those affected by pollution in the Ba Cheo Canal basin. To date, according to the online newspaper VnExpress, around 60 claims for damage compensation had been filed by late Wednesday.

A viewpoint shared by lawyers and environment experts is that Sonadezi is a State-run business but it has disregarded the environmental protection law. It should be strictly dealt with to set an example for others, Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper quoted lawyer Nguyen Van Hau, a strong advocate of the affected farmers in the Vedan case.

“This is a second Vedan case,” Hau said. “Sonadezi as a State company must be in the forefront of environmental protection but has committed the violation. This is serious contempt of law. It should be heavy-handedly handled.”

By Pham Vu - The Saigon Times Daily

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