Skip to content What was reported in 2008
In July 2008 Thanh Nien News reported that Japanese cargo ships were refusing to dock at Go Dau port on the Thi Vai river, south of Ho Chi Minh City, for fear the water would corrode their hulls. A government report that March had already described a 10 km stretch of the river as ‘totally dead’. The Thi Vai runs through Dong Nai’s industrial zones and takes factory waste water from Dong Nai and the Vung Tau area.
The writer of this page, then in Saigon, linked the story to a wider problem: fast industrial growth, weak enforcement and fines too small to deter anyone. That September the main culprit was named. Vedan, a Taiwanese monosodium glutamate maker, was found to have been discharging untreated waste into the river through a hidden pipe for years, and faced a fine reported at up to $5.5 million.
How it stands in 2026
Vedan was sanctioned and made to pay compensation, and Vietnamese water-industry reporting now says the river has ‘gradually revived’, with pollution much reduced and shrimp and fish returning (Viet Water JSC). Industrial waste along Dong Nai and the Saigon river system is still a live issue, so treat the river as recovering, not clean.
For visitors the Thi Vai is mostly a shipping channel, not a destination. For the city itself, see Ho Chi Minh City; for the coast at the river’s mouth, see Vung Tau.