Deal #543 Version #47625

*The community around Tan Mai is both physically and emotionally divided. One group of families lives next to the factory's back wall, collecting the paper fibers, another group grows rice in fields nearby, a third group lives in company-built apartments on the urban side of the factory, and a fourth lives in fish-raising houseboats on the river into which Tan Mai discharges its wastewater.

*The firm has strong linkages with the state that no amount of local pressure can motivate stricter regulation on environmental standards. Recognizing this, community members have given up even submitting formal complaint letters

*Pollution: black liquor, boiler gases, fibers, dust, BOD, COD Community members complain of nausea from air pollution, undrinkable wellwater, nose, eye, and skin problems, and lower yields from their fruit trees.

*Between 1992 and 1996, community members wrote letters to the DOSTE, the media, and to the factory management. The DOSTE investigated the claims of the community, but never showed the results to community members, and never awarded compensation for lost crops or fish.