South Korea’s Kbec Vina caught dumping wastewater again in southern Vietnam

South Korea’s Kbec Vina Co.,Ltd., the largest household and industrial waste treatment company in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, has been busted again for trying to dump wastewater illegally despite having been sanctioned several times.

Police and environmental officials in Phu My town were alerted last Thursday to smelly and polluted wastewater being discharged from the Toc Tien waste treatment facility, run by Kbec Vina in the namesake commune, into a rain drainage channel through a plastic pipe.

The following day, the police detected polluted water being discharged from a dam at the waste treatment facility into a nearby spring.

At a Monday meeting with Nguyen Cong Vinh, Vice Chairman of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, general director of Kbec Vina Choi Jung Kwoun explained that the incident was caused by a ruptured pipe.

The company has since fixed the pipe, Choi said, promising no reoccurrence.

Vinh said that provincial authorities were looking to determine whether Kbec Vina had violated regulations, and would strictly handle any wrongdoing if found.

This is not the first time Kbec Vina has found itself in murky waters.

In February 2023, police discovered wastewater was being discharged from the waste treatment facility into a nearby spring through a rain drainage channel. The wastewater was determined to contain substances exceeding the allowable levels by 10 times. The firm was subsequently fined VND1.2 billion ($47,200).

In May 2023, a group of company workers were caught red-handed pumping leachate into a nearby spring, resulting in a fine of VND1.5 billion ($59,000).