"Lao River Clogged With Trash From Chinese Banana Farms", 3 February 2020

Waste run-off and trash from Chinese-owned banana farms are polluting a river in Laos, affecting over 500 families in the country’s Oudomxay province who rely on the river’s water for daily use, local sources say.

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Trash and packing foam are also dumped into the river, “making it very dirty,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We have no choice but to use the river for bathing and other uses.”

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“The banana plantations use these materials to wrap up bananas, and after they are harvested, they throw them away. Then, the wind blows them into the river.”

Reached for comment, an interpreter for the locally operated and Chinese-owned Chin Kotang Company said his company does not pollute.

“We don’t have trash, and we don’t throw trash away,” he said....

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Concerns over chemical run-off from heavily polluting Chinese-owned banana plantations led in January 2017 to government orders forbidding new banana concessions....

But local officials have recently granted a number of firms land for new banana plantation....

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Illnesses and deaths have long been reported among Lao workers exposed to chemicals on foreign-owned farms, with many suffering open sores, headaches, and dizzy spells....

Chemical run-off from farms has also polluted many of the country’s water sources, killing fish and other animals and leaving water from local rivers and streams unfit to drink, sources say.