After killing tons of fish and ducks in the Tra Khuc River with its wastewater, Quang Ngai Sugar Company tried to salvage its reputation by sponsoring World Environment Day events early this month.
If the company wants redemption, it will fix the pollution it has caused for more than ten years, recover the damaged ecology system and compensate affected farmers.
Quang Ngai Sugar Joint Stock Company has done nothing. Instead, as police investigate the case, the company has been clever enough to add its name on banners of a big environmental event not only in Vietnam but all over the world.
The company directors must have made very careful calculations when considering sponsoring the event to clear its pollution and save its stained image.
The money may have blinded organizers of the Environment Day events on June 5, but local affected residents remain angry.
And, how can they not be angry, after their 3,000 ducks were killed during early May after eating contaminated fish and drinking water from the river polluted by the company’s untreated draff wastewater? The waste also killed two tons of marine creatures including fish and crabs.
Quang Ngai Sugar Company doesn’t obey environment laws and doesn’t respect the environment they and their fellows are living in.
Last year, a similar situation occurred when the notorious monosodium-glutamate maker Vedan based in Dong Nai Province received three certificates of merit for “community safe” products on the occasion of Vietnam’s Entrepreneur Day (October 13).
Press agencies kicked up a fuss against Vedan rewards. So the organizers – the HCMC-based quality and brand development consultant Natusi and the southern office of standards and quality under the Ministry of Science and Technology – said that Vedan was only nominated and that the rewards were a mistake.
In 2008, Vedan was found to have discharged untreated wastewater for 14 years into the Thi Vai River in Dong Nai through hidden pipes, affecting fish and rice farmers in the province, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province and Ho Chi Minh City.
There were thousands of farmers affected but the Taiwanese firm has never offered a compensation amount close to their request, despite the scientific evidence against them.
The cases involving Vedan and Quang Ngai sugar firm are different in form and scale, but in both cases, event organizers have been seduced by money in the form of sponsorship and contributions, leading them to promoting these companies as having done nothing wrong.
The Environment Day organizers in Quang Ngai have proved themselves to have a lack of awareness and sensitivity. But the worst thing is they diminish the harmful effects of pollution and lead companies to think that polluting the environment has no consequences. The situation will only deteriorate.
The reputation of World Environment Day in Quang Ngai this year was sullied by a dubious sponsor. Following this, people’s trust in authorized environment protectors will drop.
