PhotoVietnam’s prime minister halted work on a $10.6 billion steel plant on Sunday over environmental concerns, aiming to prevent a chemical spill like the one last year at another steel plant, the local news media reported, citing a government statement. The company announced plans last year for the project, a complex of more than 4,200 acres that could produce millions of tons of steel a year. Early last year, a steel plant run by the Taiwanese company Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation was the site of one of Vietnam’s worst environmental disasters. A toxic waste spill killed tons of fish and devastated fishing communities along Vietnam’s central coast. Formosa Steel admitted responsibility and agreed to pay $500 million in damages, but for months afterward, residents of coastal villages and towns, where fishing drives the economies, continued to hold rallies against the government and the company.

Source: New York Times April 16, 2017 20:15 UTC