Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has asked fourcentral provinces to speed up disbursement of compensation for mass fish deathsearlier in April so as to complete the first payment phase before the Tet (LunarNew Year) Festival.

HaTinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien-Hue are the provinces that wereaffected by the toxic spill caused by Taiwanese firm Hung Nghiep Formosa HaTinh Steel Corporation (FHS). The spill caused millions of fish to die,imperiling the health and livelihoods of coastal residents.

Ina document issued by the Government Office following a meeting of the steeringcommittee set up to deal with the incident, the Deputy PM also instructed thePeople’s Committees of the four provinces to work with Ministry of Agricultureand Rural Development and Ministry of Finance to submit compensation proposalsfor those not included in the original list of recipients.

Undera September 29 decision, the original list of individuals and businesseseligible for assistance included fishermen, owners of fishing boats and theiremployees, owners of and workers at seafood cold storage facilities, fish sauceand shrimp paste makers, and fish and shrimp farms. The list was expanded laterto include seafood processors, service providers in coastal areas, seafoodtraders and others.

TheDeputy PM also asked the Ministry of Health to work with relevant agencies toassess the quality of seafood caught within 20 nautical miles of the fourprovinces’ seabed and submit the results to the Prime Minister.

Hesaid provincial authorities should sort out their seafood inventories into whatcan and cannot be used when proposing compensation solutions to a working groupled by the Ministry of Industry and Trade that will verify the results.

Healso underscored the need to increase communication in seeking public consensuson the government’s compensation efforts as well as supervision of FormosaCorporation’s production processes.

Thefirst phase of compensation disbursement to people suffering from the mass fishdeaths began late October and Quang Tri province was the first to complete itby the end of November.

Theprovince disbursed over 202 billion VND (8.9 million USD) from the GovernmentBudget to owners of fishing boats and their employees.

Mostof the compensation recipients in the province said they would use the money tobuy fishing tools and invest in expanding farming and animal husbandry torevive production and restore normal lives.

Thecompensation for the affected will be calculated from April to September 2016,with funds sourced from the 500 million USD compensation paid by Formosa.

Themass fish deaths were first reported on April 6 when a large number of fishwashed ashore in Ha Tinh province. It soon spread to Quang Binh, Quang Tri, andThua Thien-Hue provinces.

About70 tonnes of dead fish were found in the four central provinces, with ThuaThien-Hue province alone reporting the deaths of 35 tonnes of farm-raised fish.

Thespill also affected the lives of over 260,000 people who depend on the sea fora living.-VNA