Overcoming damage to fish cages on the Da River

From June 24 to the morning of July 26, Hoa Binh Hydropower Reservoir opened three bottom spillway gates to drain the water from upstream, ensuring the safety of the reservoir. However, opening the bottom spillway gates of the hydropower reservoir caused the water level of the Da River to rise, causing sludge and water from some mineral mines to overflow, causing heavy damage to some households raising fish in cages on the Da River in Thanh Thuy district.

Mr. Mac Ke Nghiep's family collects dead fish in cages.

The Da River, normally with clear blue water, flows slowly from Hoa Binh province, through Thanh Son district, down to Thanh Thuy to join the river confluence, which is both a poetic and beautiful scene and an ideal cage fish farm for households along the river. Thanks to cage fish, dozens of households along the river have become billionaires, built spacious houses, bought cars, and many expensive items for daily life.

Dead fish have bald scales and blisters in the dorsal fin area.

However, from 2017 to now, due to climate change, natural disasters have occurred frequently, sometimes the water has dried up, sometimes heavy rains have forced the Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant to open the bottom discharge gate, causing fish cage farmers to be in dire straits. In its heyday, Thanh Thuy district alone had nearly 200 fish cages on the river stretching from Tu Vu commune to Xuan Loc commune, with some households having up to 60-70 fish cages, supplying the market with hundreds of tons of specialty fish each year such as catfish, black carp, common carp, catfish, catfish, red tilapia... earning tens of billions of dong in profit.

But in the past 5-6 years, the fish cage farming industry in Thanh Thuy has begun to decline, mainly due to climate change and erratic natural disasters. Up to now, the whole district only has about 50 fish cages left, but they are still in a state of disrepair, and cage owners no longer invest in intensive farming as before.

The tilapia fry died.

Mr. Mac Ke Nghiep, owner of more than 30 fish cages in Zone 1, Thach Dong Commune, who suffered a loss of more than 1.4 billion VND due to Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant opening the bottom spillway in recent days, confided: "When I received the news that Hoa Binh Hydropower Plant opened the bottom spillway No. 1, my family contacted to consume some of the fish that were old enough to be sold, transport some fish fry and the area inside the dike. However, due to the large amount of fish, combined with many heavy rains upstream causing water to accumulate, it was not possible to consume and transport in time, leading to a large amount of dead fish, so far more than 10 tons have died, mainly fish from 1-3kg/fish. This is the 4th time my family has suffered damage due to natural disasters. In 2017, my family lost more than 20 tons of fish, causing a loss of about 2.8 billion VND; in 2020, about 6 tons died; in 2021, about 6-7 tons died; this year, more than 10 tons have died. In fact, from 2017 until now, my family has suffered losses due to natural disasters of more than 5 billion VND. In recent days, every day fish die floating in the cage, some days as little as 3-5 quintals, some days as much as more than a ton. Now we really hope that all levels and sectors will have policies to support us financially to buy fish fry, to continue to restore and develop the fish farming profession in cages on the Da River."

A fish breeding cage is showing signs of lethargy, suspected to be due to mud choking and lack of oxygen.

According to the report of the Provincial Steering Committee for Natural Disaster Prevention, Control and Search and Rescue, as of 7:00 a.m. on July 26, Thanh Thuy district had 2 households raising fish in cages in Thach Dong commune with dead fish, of which 2 cages suffered damage of less than 30% and 4 cages suffered damage of over 70%. The total amount of dead fish in cages was over 11 tons, with total damage of over 1.6 billion VND.

Comrade Nguyen Trong Luyen - Head of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development said: Immediately after receiving the information, the District People's Committee directed the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the People's Committee of Thach Dong commune to conduct inspections, assessments, and statistics on the extent of damage to report to the competent authorities at the provincial level, considering policies to support farmers; at the same time, encourage and guide affected families to promptly collect and handle dead fish, clean and ventilate the cages to avoid polluting the water environment and minimize damage to the remaining fish cages. Instruct farmers to move some cages with fish to safe areas, promote the consumption of fish that are old enough for sale. At the same time, the Department also notified the Department of Fisheries, Department of Natural Resources and Environment to take water samples for testing, propose treatment measures, and limit increased damage. Cage owners are requested to closely monitor the weather situation, continue to transport fish fry and commercial fish to safe areas...

Phan Cuong

Source: https://baophutho.vn/khac-phuc-thiet-hai-ve-ca-long-tren-song-da-216126.htm