Farmers in Hai Loc Commune suffered from severe losses after their farm-raised clams died.

Thinking that the water was being contaminated, the farmers posted a watch on the locations and caught a couple dumping waste water into the sea red-handed. The couple brought 14 barrels of detergents used in seafood processing and had emptied 11 barrels into the sea on December 31.

Collecting dead clams

The couple allegedly told police that they were hired by the owner of Hoang Thang Seafood Processing Company to empty the waste into the sea once every three days.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and the police have co-operated to investigate the case. A delegation of the Research Institute for Aquaculture 1 also started the investigation, collecting water, dead clams and sand samples for tests.

Farm-raised clams die en mass in Hai Loc Commune

On January 6, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment took samples and concluded that the clams hadn't died because of disease. The clams tested negative for the perkinsus parasite and ammonium, nitrite and sulphur levels in the water were much higher than allowed.

Results also show that the waste emptied into the sea failed to meet national technical regulations on industrial waste. For example, the levels of cadmium and biochemical oxygen demand are over 1,000 times higher than allowed.

The case is still under investigation.