Oil clumps on central beach an abnormality

The Quảng Nam People’s Committee said it has collected eight tonnes of waste mixed with oil clumps along the beach in Núi Thành District, adding that these clumps were not the same as previous ones.

The Quảng Nam People’s Committee said it has collected eight tonnes of waste mixed with oil clumps along the beach in Núi Thành District, adding that these clumps were not the same as previous ones.-Photo zing.vn

Speaking at the conference on Wednesday, Huỳnh Khánh Toàn, vice chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said that hundreds of environmental workers and relevant agencies have collected 25 tonnes of waste after two weeks of focusing on collecting oil there.

Of which, eight tonnes were garbage with oil clumps. All the garbage has been destroyed.

Toàn said the committee has asked the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to find out the cause of the phenomenon and the origin of waste and oil clumps.

On February 6, oil clumps, with the length of between 0.5 centimetres and 10 centimetres, were seen spreading 7 kilometres along the coast from Rạng Beach in Tam Quang Commune to Chu Lai Resort in Tam Nghĩa Commune.

The oil clumps were found together with empty bottles and Chinese language packages.

Nguyễn Hồng Quang, chief secretariat of the provincial committee, said that oil clumps with such large amounts of waste were an abnormal phenomenon in the province.

Trần Văn Anh, chief secretariat of the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said that oil clumps and waste were identified to drift from other sea zones through the ocean flow to the sea in Núi Thành District.

Việt Nam’s Directorate of Sea and Islands have reported that bottles and packages were originated from Hong Kong and China.  It has continued investigating the cause of the incident.

The directorate said that the amount of waste drifting to the beach has been four or five times higher than the previous years. This was the first time oil clumps were reported on the provincial beach in this year.

Source VNS