Flooded Vietnam coal mines leaking toxic slurry into World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay environmentalists

PHOTO: Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site visited by millions of tourists each year. 

Heavy rainfall in northern Vietnam has killed at least 17 people and inundated major coal mines, causing concern among environmentalists about the contamination of the nation's top tourist attraction and World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay.

A week of persistent rain in Quang Ninh province has displaced thousands of people as houses and roads deluged by floodwater runoff from 16 open pit coal mines and three coal-fired power plants escaped inadequate holding ponds.

Footage on local news website VnExpress shows communities in Cam Pha City evacuating through knee-deep muddy coal slurry from nearby mines that broke confinement banks last week.

In a statement, international clean water resources environmental group Waterkeeper Alliance said the runoff was filled with a potentially hazardous toxic slurry including heavy metals arsenic, boron, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, manganese, selenium and thallium.

It said local reports of severe flooding inundating the Lang Khanh harbour area and Dien Vong river are awash with fresh leakages from the Quang Ninh coal-fired power plant, located on the waterfront that connects directly to Ha Long Bay.

With its floating villages, vast caves and green-tinged limestone rocks, Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site visited by millions of tourists each year.

Around 1,500 tourists were rescued as the rain set in, with the Vietnamese military assisting rescue efforts.

The region is also a major source of coal, thousands of tonnes of which were swept away in the floods, according to the state-owned Vietnam National Coal and Mineral Industries Corporation, Vinacomin.

On the company's website, Vinacomin's chairman said operations at many of its coal mines had been suspended, without mention of any pollution issues.