Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung released instructions on Thursday to up Vedan’s punishment if it failed to follow directives by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung released instructions on Thursday to up Vedan’s punishment if it failed to follow directives by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
The Taiwan-invested monosodium glutamate (MSG) producer had its licence suspended, and was fined VND267.5 million (US$16,718), and charged another VND127 billion ($7.7 million) in over-due environmental protection fees. The charges came after Vedan was caught releasing so much untreated waste water into the Thi Vai river, that they effectively killed a portion of the river.
If Vedan fails to follow these decisions and continues to pollute Thi Vai River, Dung empowered the local People’s Committee chairman to hand out higher punishments, such as halting operations until it complies with the law, force the company to move further from residential areas, or shut the company down altogether.
The day before these instructions, Vedan had asked the ministry and the local People’s Committee to allow it to pay the environmental protection fees over two years instead of the original one month deadline.
Authorities agreed that Vedan could pay VND67 billion by the end of this year, and another VND15 billion each quarter next year.
At a regular cabinet meeting earlier, the PM had asked the People’s Committee of Dong Nai Province, where the plant is located, together with local State-management agencies to work closely with ministries involved in environment and public security to ensure the company follow the instructions. He said that once the company has upgraded its systems to resume operations, they must ensure that they discharge only treated waste which meets
Reports on the company’s progress must be submitted to the Prime Minister this month.
"The punishments for Vedan’s violations of environmental protection rules must be implemented strictly and clearly in appropriate steps, to ensure that it will stop dumping waste into the water source, ending the serious environmental pollution and maintaining production," Dung said.
Also at the meeting, the ministry and local authorities agreed to temporarily delay the decision on suspending Vedan’s operation. Up to now, the company has paid the fine of VND267.5 million and taken out the more than 1,000m of underground iron pipes which were used to discharge the untreated waste water into the river.
(Source: VNS)
