Dead fish in the river
The incident started on February 26, when the Thu Bon River water began to change color. After that, the fish in the cages of people in Duy Nghia commune, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam showed signs of fatigue and died en masse. In just 1 day, the river surface was white, killing dead fish, forcing people to pull cages to Hong Trieu fishing port to pick up fish and handle the pollution.
Mr. Nguyen Cuong, a fish farmer in Duy Nghia commune - said that before the Lunar New Year, he had invested more than 320 million VND to release 30,000 fish fry. Up to now, many have weighed about 100g.
However, after just one day, each cage had about 500kg of dead fish, causing him to almost lose all the capital he had to borrow from relatives.
Similarly, Mr. Nguyen Lien - another farming household also fell into a similar situation when his 20 cages of fish of the genus with more than 30,000 fish fry, worth nearly 300 million VND, died en masse for unknown reasons.
"The fish have died densely since the river water changed to silt after the announcement of flood discharge from the upstream hydropower plant. My family is trying to save the living fish, but the capital outlay is too large, I don't know where to get it to compensate," Mr. Lien said sadly.
Why do fish die due to flood discharge?
As of the evening of February 27, Duy Nghia commune alone had 43 fish farming households with 615 cages along the Thu Bon river, mainly reed fish farming, which suffered heavy damage.
Mr. Diep Tan Luc - Chairman of Duy Nghia Commune People's Committee, said that the rate of fish deaths in each cage is up to 60-90%, the total number of dead fish is nearly 300 tons. Most households have borrowed money to have investment capital. It is estimated that households have suffered at least 100 million VND in damage, while many households may have suffered up to 500 million VND.
"The initial cause was determined to be due to the sudden decrease in salinity in the river downstream, suspected to be due to the influence of upstream hydropower plants releasing floodwaters in recent days" - Mr. Luc commented.
According to the leader of Duy Nghia commune, pangasius is a living species in brackish water environment, this sudden change causes the fish to not be able to adapt, leading to mass death.
To overcome this situation, the government has instructed people to bring cages to Hong Trieu fishing port to avoid reducing fresh water from upstream and increase the released air mass to save the remaining fish. At the same time, people are required to collect dead fish to avoid environmental pollution.
The mass fish death incident not only caused serious economic damage but also pushed many households into debt. People are waiting for support from the government and relevant agencies to reduce the burden.
On February 24, three large hydroelectric reservoirs in Quang Nam, including Song Tranh 2, Song Tranh 4 and Dak Mi 4, announced the operation of reservoirs to ensure the safety of the Vu Gia - Thu Bon river area (due to unusually heavy rain). The flow is regulated from 10-300m3/s, causing water from upstream to suddenly flow in, many downstream areas are partially flooded in the middle of spring.
