It has been more than a month since the Bac Kan Non-ferrous Metal Company's sludge dam broke, and Ms. Nong Thi Bui (Ban Thi Commune, Cho Don) is still in shock. Her family's peaceful days have been turned upside down, with worries always lingering in her heart.
"I still remember clearly that it was 7am, a large amount of sludge poured down from the high hill. Just a few seconds later, furniture and fields were covered in mud. Luckily, the house did not collapse at that time.
For 2 days after the dam broke, we had to stay at someone else's house. More than a month has passed and we still haven't been able to stabilize our lives. The family almost lost all their fields, gardens, and belongings," said Ms. Bui.
According to Ms. Bui, all of her family’s valuable assets were damaged. Up to now, she has not received any significant support. In particular, the worry of environmental pollution is always present. The house is located at the foot of the dam, so the future is uncertain.
According to Ms. Bui, the family wants the company to compensate for the property damage that was swept away. At the same time, fix the problem in the long term so that people can stabilize soon. Take measures to ensure safety when there are still many reservoirs "hanging" on the roofs of people's houses.
Also suffering heavy damage after the dam break, Ms. Thanh Hoa (name changed) said that her family's crops were almost completely lost.
"The family's fields and gardens were buried in the mud. Statistics show that there are 4,000 square meters of corn and more than 1,800 square meters of rice fields. Up to now, there has been no compensation. After the dam broke, there were no crops left.
Farmers can only look at their crops, now they have lost everything so it is very difficult. They are also afraid that it will affect the next crops. I just hope to support people soon to stabilize their lives," said Ms. Hoa.
According to the report of Cho Don District People's Committee, approximately 132 households were affected by the dam break, with estimated damage of about 5.4 billion VND (not including affected households in Tuyen Quang province).
On August 17, speaking with Lao Dong Newspaper reporter, Mr. Luc Thanh Huyen - Vice Chairman of Ban Thi Commune People's Committee said that the locality is continuing to coordinate with Bac Kan Non-ferrous Metal Company to overcome the consequences.
"In addition to supporting families to clean up the sludge, the locality also divided into groups to count and count the damage of the people. There are 3 households near the foot of the dam that suffered heavy damage. We have counted them first, then we will meet with the company and the authorities to come up with an accurate solution. Currently, hundreds of workers of the company are still dredging and cleaning up the sludge that spilled into the environment after the incident," the leader added.
As reported by Lao Dong Newspaper, on the morning of September 9, the dam burst of Bac Kan Non-ferrous Metal Company caused more than 1,000 tons of lead-zinc ore sludge and accompanying chemicals to spill into the environment, seriously affecting the ecosystem and threatening the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of households in the two provinces of Tuyen Quang and Bac Kan.
After the incident, the Ministry of Health supported testing the quality of domestic water in Binh Phu commune (Chiem Hoa, Tuyen Quang) with 8 group A parameters and 29 group B metal and microbiological parameters to assess the risk of heavy metal contamination from ore-processing water.
The results showed that 10/10 water samples did not meet the National Technical Regulation QCVN 01-1:2018/BYT on the quality of clean water used for domestic purposes in terms of physical-chemical and microbiological parameters.
