Mass fish deaths in Tan Mai village: People hope for support to clean up the water environment

SGGPO 06/01/2023 16:49

On the morning of June 1, SGGPO Newspaper reporters returned to Tan Mai fishing village (Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province) to record the situation of fish cage farming of households after the mass fish deaths.

Mr. Hoang Van Hang (a resident of Tan Mai fishing village) said that in the past few days, his family's grass carp and common carp have died at a rate of 400-500kg per day, and since the beginning of May, about 5 tons of fish have died. Mr. Hang was upset with the information that he and other households had falsified the number of dead fish to receive support and compensation money.

He said: "Tan Mai fishing village has thousands of fish rafts, and several hundred kilograms die every day. We, the households, just hope that the authorities will help clean up the water environment and help the fish stay healthy."

Tan Mai fishing village people collect dead fish in cages

For decades of raising fish in cages, only once did Tan Mai Paper Factory discharge waste into the environment causing fish to die and the cages to turn white, and they paid compensation. In addition, Mr. Hang has never received any support from the government when the fish died. He suspects that the river water is heavily polluted due to waste discharged from some production facilities or factories, flowing through here causing the mass fish deaths.

As for Mr. Nguyen Khac Khoe, who raises 4 cages of grass carp, in the past half month, the fish suddenly died. Initially, 10 died, then gradually increased to 400 fish dying each day. One cage of fish weighing nearly 4 tons died, the remaining cages also died everywhere and only a few hundred kilograms remained. At this rate, the family will go bankrupt. Mr. Khoe said: "The river water smells of soap, causing the fish to pout and then roll over and die."

Mr. Hoang Van Hang is heartbroken because of the mass fish deaths.

Mr. Tran Van Thinh, a fish farmer here, was upset: "I don't understand why there is information that only a few hundred kilograms of fish die each day, while the number of dead fish here is hundreds of tons, small households have a few tons, large households have more than ten tons. Currently, the number of dead fish in his family has reached 14 tons and they died during the night, in the morning they had to scoop them up and bring them to shore to clean the raft. "Can we just leave it like that and wait for the authorities to come down and count them?"

After SGGPO Newspaper reported the news, Mr. Chau Thanh An, Head of the Department of Fisheries of Dong Nai province, invited reporters to survey and only recorded the fish farming situation of 3 households in Tan Mai raft village.

During the survey, officers from the Dong Nai Fisheries Department focused on recording the density of fish cages and said that people raised them too densely, causing low oxygen levels, causing the fish to die. However, the problems reported by households such as unusual water pollution, strange odors like acid, and the smell of detergent were not clarified. The survey team also showed signs of "avoiding" cages with heavy damage and then providing information to "mitigate the damage" to the press!

More and more fish are dying in the cages of Tan Mai fishing village.

Responding to questions from SGGPO Newspaper reporters, Mr. An said "he is coordinating with the Economic Department to summarize and report quickly."

Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/vu-lang-ca-tan-mai-chet-hang-loat-nguoi-dan-mong-duoc-ho-tro-lam-sach-moi-truong-nuoc-post692061.html