NGHỆ AN — Farmers in Nghệ An Province’s Diễn Châu District are deeply concerned about the extraordinary number of fish that have been dying since Saturday.

The deaths are taking place in farming cages in the Bùng River, passing through the communes of Diễn Hạnh, Diễn Nguyên, Diễn Quảng and Diễn Kỷ.

“At about 10am on Saturday, fish in my family’s three farming cages, in which 1.5 tonnes of fish are being raised, started to die en mass,” 63-year-old Chu Văn Thanh, a resident of Diễn Hạnh Commune, said.

He added that his family was distressed because of the huge economic loss.

“The fish were about to be harvested with an estimated value of VNĐ500 million (US$ 22,400),” he said.

A similar occurrence is taking place in farming cages of hundreds of other families along the river.

The locals said this was not the first time fish have died in this area. Fish deaths were also reported in June and July but the quantity of dead fish was much less.

They attributed the recent incident to the polluted river water, which had turned red and had a foul smell.

They felt the most likely reason for the deaths was the discharge of wastewater from a factory processing cassava located in the upstream area of Yên Thành District.

Lê Thế Hiếu, head of the agriculture sector in Diễn Châu People’s Committee, yesterday afternoon said the local authorities had collected water and fish samples for testing.

Mass fish deaths have increasingly been reported across the country in recent days, many of which were caused by improper waste treatment in industrial production.

In particular, the Taiwanese Hưng Nghiệp Formosa Hà Tĩnh Seel Corporation was responsible for 100 tonnes of fish dying, whose carcasses washed ashore along the four central provinces in April. — VNS