Formosa Ha Tinh awaits inspection On May 4, the interdisciplinary inspection team led by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment started to check the wastewater treatment system of Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Ltd. to clarify the linkages between the company’s wastewater discharge and the mass dying of fish in Central Vietnam, according to newswire Baogiaothong.vn.   photo source Baogiaothong.vn In addition, the authorities will check the environmental protection measures taken by Vung Ang Petroleum Power Company and Vung Ang Economic Zone’s Infrastructure Service Centre. According to the plans, on the first day the authorities will attended a working session with representatives of Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Ltd. (Hung Nghiep Formosa) for a review of the company’s implementation of environmental regulations. On the following days, they will directly check the wastewater treatment systems of the above facilities. Besides, they will analyse the chemical substances used to cleanse wastewater pipes in Hung Nghiep Formosa. The interdisciplinary inspection team combines representatives of ministries, domestic and foreign experts, as well as domestic and foreign science organisations in order to arrive to objective conclusions. On the same day, the Ministry of Science and Technology has established a national council of science and technology experts to clarify the causes of the unreasonable mass dying of fish. Accordingly, experts collected samples from dead fish, water, sediment, as well as planktons to be analysed in laboratories equipped with modern machinery imported from the US, Japan, and Switzerland. On May 2, the Vietnamese authorities held a working session with scientists from the United States, Germany, and Israel to analyse wastewater discharged by factories along the coastlines in the north-central province of Ha Tinh, in a bid to discover the causes behind the recent crisis. Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Tran Hong Ha cooperated with foreign experts on Monday, who specialize in oceanography, coastal geology, marine environment, and coastal engineering, to assess the activities of factories near Vung Ang beach in Ha Tinh. After working with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the scientists will continue to cooperate with the Ministry of Science and Technology to clarify the cause, said Professor Roberto Mayerle, director of the Research and Technology Centre Westcoast of Kiel University in Germany. By Ha Vy, VIR