The director of the department, Nguyen Ngoc Hung, said that many enterprises in the province were discharging waste water with high levels of coliform, which caused digestive diseases, thousands of times higher than the allowed levels.

Ba made an example of the province's Thi Vai river, which had been polluted with untreated waste water by thousands of factories and companies along its banks.

Typically, the coliform present in waste water discharged by the Viet Hau Limited Company was 31,000 times higher than the allowed level, said Hung.

"There have been more than 100 enterprises facing fines for polluting the environment since the beginning of the year," Hung said. "The maximum fine of VND70 million (US$3,800) has been given to many of them."

However, according to the director of the Institute for Environmental Science Engineering and Management, Le Huy Ba, such fines were not strict enough to deter violators.

"Many enterprises accept the fines, as they are still much cheaper than investing in equipment that would lower contamination levels," he said.

"These low fines may lead to more environmental pollution and, more seriously, allow businesses to disregard the law.

"The fine needs to be higher not only to deter violations but also to contribute to recovering the environment, as this will cost a lot of time and money," Ba added.

Ba made an example of the province's Thi Vai river, which had been polluted with untreated waste water by thousands of factories and companies along its banks.

"If all the factories along the river stopped discharging waste water, the river would still need seven to 10 years to recover," he said.

Phan Van Het, deputy director of Dong Nai province's DoNRE, agreed that fines were not high enough, and said that the department was discussing more appropriate fines rates.

"Besides applying administrative fines, we will also publicise the violations in mass media," he said.

"Enterprises causing critical environmental pollution will have their operations suspended and be forced to solve the problems before resuming production."