The serious encroachment of sand sediment along Lạch Bạng Sea Port in Tĩnh Gia District of central Thanh Hoá Provine has been blocking many cargo ships and fishing vessels as they try to approach the port.— Photo nongnghiep.vn

HÀ NỘI — The serious encroachment of sand sediment along Lạch Bạng Sea Port in Tĩnh Gia District of central Thanh Hoá Provine has been blocking many cargo ships and fishing vessels as they try to approach the port.

With a convenient geographic location, Lạch Bạng Sea Port is the biggest point for docking and fisheries trading in the North Central area as well as in Thanh Hoá Province. Normally, the port can serve up to 800 vessels annually, but in the past few years only about 500 ships have been able to enter the port each year.

In 2016, the total amount of goods transported to the Lạch Bạng Sea Port was 246,000 tonnes.

Along the Hải Bình sea shore in Tĩnh Gia District, hundreds of ships lay still on a  recent day. On the Lạch Bạng wharf, small boats formed a long line – they had no goods to transport to hore.

Nguyễn Văn Đồng, owner of two fishing ships in Hải Bình Commune, said his ships have been unable to sail since the end of the Tết holidays (Việt Nam’s Lunar New Year festival).

“We have to wait for the water level to rise to be able to sail the ships. Sand sediments along the sea port could easily strand the ships,” he told Natural Resources (Tài Nguyên Môi Trường) Newspaper.

But even if he were able to send his ships to sea, he would still worry.

“When the ships return, if the water level is not high enough, we can’t dock near the shore to unload the fish. We might have to use smaller boats and transport the goods to other ports, but then the fish would be rotten,” Đồng said. “Many other ship owners suffer from the same problems. We all can’t sail up.”

Cao Thanh Thuận, another crew member of a fishing ship, said that his ship’s propeller was broken when trying to approach the Lạch Bạng Port.

“It took us quite a while to send the ship onshore for repair. If this situation continues, big ships will find other ports for their trading and skip this port,” Thuận said.

He said the fact that many big ships can’t approach the port meant the amount of fish imported to the shore had fallen considerably. That also means processing enterprises are in great shortage of materials for their production.

Ngô Văn Chính, a land official in Hải Bình Commune, said the commune has some 205 ships and vessels and most of the 1,300 residents of the commune make ends meet through offshore fishing, fisheries trading and processing.  

 Need for dredging

“We wish relevant authorities would quickly develop a plan for sand dredging along the creeks of the Lạch Bạng Sea Port so that all these difficulties can be eliminated,” Chính said.

Mai Xuân Châu, head of the agriculture and rural development department of Tĩnh Gia District, said the district’s Enterprises Association had sent a document to the district’s People’s Committee, asking for permission to collect donations from members of the association and ship owners in Hải Thanh, Hải Bình communes to support the dredging.

The district’s People’s Committee has requested the Thanh Hoá Province’s People’s Committee and relevant sectors quickly launch sand and rock dredging along the port, Châu said. — VNS