Nguyen Thi Du, head of the Inspection Division of the city’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment, said authorities re-inspected 23 enterprises in the city that had been fined before, and found out that 10 of them disobeyed to the penalty decisions issued by the city government or the environmental inspectors.

Many violators have continued discharging untreated wastewater and industrial smoke into the environment, with some even failing to pay the administrative fines, she said.

In related news, the city’s environment inspectors and representatives of many related departments on Tuesday (11 August) had a meeting to seek proper measures to deal with Viet Thang Jean Trading – Production Co. Ltd. after this company ignored the penalty decision issued on June 25 by the city government.

According to the city’s environmental inspectors, Viet Thang Jean was imposed a fine of VND80.5 million for serious violations including the discharge of untreated wastewater into the environment. Besides, the company was also forced to stop operations of certain polluting workshops.

A recent re-inspection showed the company specializing in garment production and dyeing since 1995 was still discharging untreated wastewater into the environment.

The meeting on Tuesday discussed several coercive measures, including disruption of power supply to the company. However, Nguyen Tu Hung of the HCMC Power Company said that the power cut was unfeasible because the company would be able to sue the power supplier. The meeting therefore failed to reach a consensus on any appropriate measures against Viet Thang Jean Company.

Vu Thi Tam, deputy general director of Viet Thang Jean Company, affirmed that the company has almost completed all the repair needed to stop polluting the environment. She added that the company had also already paid the administrative fine of VND80.5 million on July 29.