Dozens of Taiwanese and Vietnamese demonstrators yesterday rallied in front of Formosa Plastics Group’s Taipei headquarters, demanding that the company make public an investigative report into massive fish deaths in Ha Tinh Province, Vietnam, and condemned a Vietnamese subsidiary of the group for the illicit disposal of harmful materials last week.
Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp on June 30 took responsibility for massive fish deaths in four central provinces in Vietnam and promised US$500 million in compensation, but it has yet to publish an investigation report or announce a pollution remediation program, protesters said.
Last week the plant was linked to the illegal dumping of 390 tonnes of harmful cyanide materials.
Photo: Chen Wei-han, Taipei Times
“Formosa Plastics did not learn its lesson from the fish die-off, but continues to pollute the environment, making Vietnamese distrust the company even more,” Vietnamese Migrant Workers and Brides Office executive director Peter Nguyen Van Hung said.
“The US$500 million may seem a large sum, but it is in fact insignificant, because the money is far from sufficient to compensate the 10 million residents living in the four affected provinces, whose livelihood depends on fishing,” Hung said.
Duy Hoang, a member of a US-based political party Viet Tan, called on Formosa Plastics to release its investigative report and commit to a full clean-up of the affected environment to ensure that the image of Taiwan is not unfairly tarnished.
“Formosa Plastics is not the only party in this incident; the Vietnamese government is guilty of mishandling the incident,” Hoang said. “It appears that the Vietnamese government is covering something up. At first it said the fish deaths were caused by an algal bloom, but later it said they were caused by Formosa Plastics.”
The US$500 million compensation was a “secretive settlement” between Formosa Ha Tinh and the Vietnamese government, Hoang said, calling on Vietnamese authorities to demonstrate greater transparency and release investigation reports.
Activists read a statement by Vietnamese priest Dang Huu Nam, who they said was denied an exit visa travel to Taiwan by Vietnamese authorities.
The statement said residents of Ha Tinh and neighboring provinces asked Formosa Plastics to cease all of its operations in Vietnam, provide sufficient compensation for disaster victims and commit to environmental restoration.
Environmental Jurists Association secretary-general Lin Jen-hui (林仁惠) said Formosa Plastics president Jason Lin (林健男) promised to release investigative reports on June 17, but the company never did, while the vice president of Formosa Chemicals and Fibre Corp released water quality test results last month that indicated the sewage from the steel plant met Vietnamese environmental standards.
“Formosa Plastics inconsistency has aroused distrust of Taiwanese businesses among the Vietnamese public,” Lin Jen-hui said.
Environmental Jurists Association director Chang Yu-yin (張譽尹) urged the Ministry of Economic Affairs to launch a probe into Formosa Plastics’ practice so the public could understand the pollution incidents.
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