In times in which we are trying to save the environment, disasters can be devastating. The ship “X-Press Pearl” caught fire on May 20th on the west coast of Sri Lanka. If the ship broke apart and sank, it would cause a terrible chemical spill. Not only would there be 350 metric tons of oil spilled from the fuel tank. But the ship would also spill the 25 tons of nitric acid it was transporting, including other chemicals, such as sodium methoxide, methane, and caustic soda. In addition, plastic pellets from the ship have been drifting to the beaches, killing animals when they ingest these pellets along the way. To stop this disaster, the Indian Coast Guard has been helping the navy of Sri Lanka to extinguish the fire and prevent the ship from sinking. Finally, this was achieved on June 3rd. Currently, it is suspected that the fire started due to a nitric acid leak.
Moreover, this accident also has devastating impacts on the country's economy. The oil and plastic pellet pollution could damage the fishing industry and tourism due to plastic pellets covering the beach. To prevent polluted fish from affecting people's health, fishing has been stopped in affected areas. These encompassed areas are about an 80 km radius from the ship. Additionally, a “News First” staff writer expressed that: “It is Sri Lanka that will have to face the debilitating impact of this disaster for years to come. That should be the foremost concern of the government, and a priority in the minds of the public who are following the developments of this disaster with interest and concern.” It takes about 20 or more years for the maritime ecosystems to recover. Models have shown that the pellets are moving to the south, which means fishery and ecosystems are in danger along the coastline and enter rivers.
Sadly, this accident is another example of mishandling of chemicals just like last year in Beirut where ammonium nitrate had been placed in a warehouse for 6 years and caused a large explosion. According to the company that owned the ship “X-Press Feeders”, once the crew knew about the leakage, they wanted to load off the chemicals from the ship at ports in India and Qatar. But, the respective countries did not allow this to occur. “The fact that Sri Lanka allowed the vessel to enter its waters after it was rejected by two other nations has led to widespread public anger.” (BBC) Now, the captain, engineer, and the assistant of the engineer face have been questioned and are not allowed to leave Sri Lanka.
Now the Sri Lankan government is trying to determine those responsible for the accident. On June 5th, the black box (storing information) was extracted from the ship, helping with the investigations. The Justice Minister communicated “The fire that broke out on the ship has severely affected the economy, ecosystem, fisheries and various other sectors of our country and the main objective was to assist the Attorney General’s Department in taking legal action to repair the damage(...),”. (News First) Finally, the countries' leaders have announced that they will try to get compensation for the incident even though the compensation will not undo the consequences of the spill.
Anna. H
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Image:
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