![\"Mass](\"http:\/\/www.nature.org.vn\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/110516_massfishdeath.jpg\")
Even within a similar management body, there existed different judgments about whether FHS should have been permitted to release wastewater through underground pipes, Vo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case FHS was allowed to do so, so what happened if the management body failed to oversee the waste dumped into the environment?\u201d he said, quoted by Vietnamplus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was projected that wastewater from the project would flow into the Quyen River, but later it was released into the sea. Did the Ha Tinh Department of Natural Resources and Environment supervise the plant construction?\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof. Vo noted that though the official cause of the mass fish deaths had yet to be released, the public suspected that steel and thermo-electricity projects based next to the sea would have a direct impact on the sea water.<\/p>\n
\u201cI fear that we think more about economic development than we do about environmental protection. We may have thought of the latter, but we haven\u2019t paid adequate attention to it,\u201d he said. \u201cThe serious fish death incident has raised an alarm to monitor the country\u2019s environmental protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade\u2019s Chemical Department, Nguyen Xuan Sinh,\u00a0said legal regulations and tools to supervise the environment were highly available, but the actual work remained limited.<\/p>\n
Sinh said the investment into the waste treatment system was costly and its operation was complicated, so certain plants operated the waste treatment system during day time and then released wastewater secretly at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the case related to Formosa, I think we need the environment police or local people to act as intermediary,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In regard to environment planning, Sinh said quite a few localities were ignoring approved planning to sign and approve projects that are not included in the planning. \u00a0<\/p>\n
From the perspective of an environment management body, former deputy head of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment\u2019s Pollution Control Department\u00a0Tran The Loan \u00a0said the environment-monitoring tools failed to assess the environmental capacity in each region.<\/p>\n
\u201cA region might be able to accommodate a plant, but the addition of one more plant might damage the environmental capacity thereafter,” Loan said.<\/p>\n
He added that the illegal and stealthy discharge of waste was true and the cases detected were lower than what actually occured.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe practice depends on business ethics and responsibility towards the community.\u201d<\/p>\n