COLOMBO: Experts on Wednesday warned that a stricken container ship that caught fire 13 days ago off Sri Lanka causing one of the worst ecological disasters in the country’s history could now create an oil spill crisis.
Rescue teams have been working around the clock to tackle the blaze on the cargo vessel which was carrying hundreds of tons of chemicals and microplastic.
Locals living along the coastal belt have been advised not to eat fish from the waters until further notice, with a temporary ban in place since last week.
Douglas Devananda, Sri Lanka’s minister of fisheries and aquatic resources development, told Arab News: “We have advised fishermen in these areas not to go fishing as the people cannot eat the fish in the affected areas.”
A massive cleanup operation involving thousands of troops and Sri Lankan navy personnel continued on Wednesday as workers removed debris from beaches near the capital Colombo, including in the popular tourist spot of Negombo.
Other areas worst affected included Panadura, Moratuwa, Mt. Lavinia, and Hendala along 80 kilometers of coastline. The region is home to more than 1 million people and famous for its jumbo prawns, crabs, lobsters, seer fish, salmon, and sprats which the local fishing community relies on for a livelihood.
“There are some 5,000 fishermen who have been asked to refrain from fishing until further notice. They are being paid around $30 allowance with other relief measures, such as the distribution of dry rations, also being considered by the ministry,” Devananda added.
The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl burst into flames on May 20 when it was nearly 9.5 nautical miles northwest of Colombo after setting sail from Gujarat, in India.
Since then, the Sri Lanka Navy and Indian Coast Guard have been trying to extinguish the fire, which destroyed most of the nearly 1,500 containers on board, 81 of which had “dangerous goods” inside.
The three-month-old, 186-meter-long ship also had 25 metric tons of nitric acid and other chemicals onboard along with 28 containers of plastic raw material which dispersed into the sea.
While the cause of the fire has not yet been established, Sri Lankan authorities suspect an acid leak could have been the trigger.
“The fire in the vessel has been completely doused,” Navy spokesman Indika De Silva told Arab News on Wednesday, adding that Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had ordered rescue workers to “try and move the ship into deeper seas.”
De Silva said: “They are encountering some difficulties since the vessel is stuck. If that is the case, there will be a possible oil spill from the vessel.”
Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fisheries Kanchana Wijesekera recently warned that hundreds of metric tons of oil leaking into the ocean would cause “widespread ecological damage” to marine life and coastal communities.
On Wednesday, a team of navy divers was sent to inspect the vessel’s hull. De Silva said there were concerns over the ship’s stern resting low on the waterline due to a suspected leak.
However, one of the biggest worries was the prospect of fish and other wildlife swallowing the millions of plastic pellets that had fallen into the sea.
Dharshani Lahandapura, chairman of the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), told Arab News: “This is the worst maritime environmental disaster ... ever since the island has not faced such a situation of this magnitude.”
“Every day we are deploying around 1,000 workers to clean the affected areas with the assistance of the tri-forces and other environmental agencies of the country.”
She noted that her department had been collecting tons of waste materials that were being stored in a safe place and said that the MEPA would be concentrating on “delicate areas in the seas to protect mangroves, corals, and marine wildlife.”
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has launched a criminal probe into the fire and the resulting marine pollution.
On Tuesday, a Colombo court issued an order preventing the ship’s captain, chief engineer, and deputy engineer from leaving the island while its 25-member crew have been evacuated and quarantined at local hotels.
The court also ordered the vessel to be examined by a government-appointed analyst and for its documents, charts, and recordings to be confiscated.
Police spokesman, Ajith Rohana, told media that the country’s criminal investigations department had taken statements from the vessels’ crew, the harbor master, the ship’s local agents, officials from the wildlife department, and the MEPA, as part of the investigation.
Oil spill fears grow over stricken cargo ship off Sri Lankan coast
https://arab.news/j2tzu
Oil spill fears grow over stricken cargo ship off Sri Lankan coast
- Experts warn of ‘worst environmental disaster’ in country’s history
Spain royals to visit flood epicenter after chaotic trip: media
CHIVA, Spain: Spain’s royals will make a highly anticipated return to the epicenter of catastrophic floods on Tuesday after a chaotic trip where survivors hurled mud and insults at them, local media said.
The European country is reeling from the October 29 disaster that has killed 227 people and sparked widespread fury at the governing class for their perceived mishandling of the crisis.
That outrage boiled over in the ground-zero town of Paiporta in the eastern Valencia region when King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia visited on November 3, in extraordinary scenes that stunned the world.
Furious residents chanting “murderers” pelted them with mud and projectiles as they struggled to wade through the crowds, while Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was hastily evacuated.
The monarchs have since pledged to return to the Valencia region after another trip to the devastated town of Chiva was canceled that day.
The royal palace told AFP it would give details later Tuesday for the visit.
Felipe and Letizia are returning to keep their promise and console survivors in Chiva where the floods ripped away lives and homes, said Vicente Garrido, professor of constitutional law at the University of Valencia.
Residents will be more welcoming on this occasion because “minds are calmer” despite “the enormous pain,” and royal visits are “an honor” for any town, he told AFP.
Public anger
Whereas Sanchez and the Valencia region’s leader Carlos Mazon left early last time, the mud-spattered royal couple braved the popular anger to speak with victims.
That gesture was “viewed very positively by everyone” and will afford them “a reception befitting who they are” this week, said Garrido.
Their willingness to travel and risk personal harm earlier this month “strengthens the image” of the monarchy, Garrido said.
Popular ire has instead targeted elected politicians, particularly Mazon because the regions manage the response to natural disasters in Spain’s decentralized state.
Local authorities in many cases warned residents of the impending catastrophe too late and stricken towns depended on volunteers for essential supplies for days in the absence of the state.
The conservative Mazon admitted “mistakes” and apologized in the regional parliament on Friday but refused to resign and vowed to lead Valencia’s gigantic reconstruction effort.
Sanchez is due to appear in parliament this month to explain the left-wing central government’s handling of the floods.
UK and India to resume stalled free trade talks
- The two countries have spent nearly three years negotiating what would be a milestone for Britain as it continues to seek alternative markets
London: Britain and India will resume stalled talks to agree a free-trade deal, the two countries said after their leaders met at the G20 summit in Brazil.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took power in London in July, hailed his meeting with Indian counterpart Narendra Modi as “very productive” and vowed that a trade pact with Delhi would boost UK growth.
“A new trade deal will support jobs and prosperity in the UK — and represent a step forward in our mission to deliver growth and opportunity across the country,” he posted on X late Monday.
Hours earlier, Starmer’s office confirmed the two countries would relaunch the talks “in the new year” as Britain sought “a new strategic partnership with India.”
That will include “deepening cooperation in areas like security, education, technology, and climate change,” Downing Street said in a statement summarising the meeting of the two leaders.
India’s foreign ministry said both leaders had “underlined the importance of resuming the Free Trade Agreement negotiations at an early date.”
It added they had “expressed confidence in the ability of the negotiating teams, to address the remaining issues to mutual satisfaction, leading to a balanced, mutually beneficial and forward looking Free Trade Agreement.”
The two countries have spent nearly three years negotiating what would be a milestone for Britain as it continues to seek alternative markets after its departure from the European Union.
UK and India to resume stalled free trade talks
The previous Conservative government, ousted by Starmer’s Labour party in July, had hit several roadblocks in its talks with Delhi over the trade pact.
In exchange for lowering tariffs on British imports such as whisky, India has pushed for more UK work and study visas for its citizens.
But Starmer’s Downing Street predecessor, Rishi Sunak, took an increasingly tough stance on immigration during his 20-month tenure as he faced a backlash over record migration levels in the wake of the Covid pandemic.
His government unveiled a raft of measures in late 2023 aimed at curbing the numbers.
Starmer has prioritized kickstarting anaemic UK economic growth but his administration is also under pressure on the contentious issue.
Britain has secured a number of post-Brexit trade deals, including with Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and is set to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) next month.
But a much sought-after trade deal with the United States remains elusive, and striking a deal Canada also faltered earlier this year.
Germany sees damaging of Baltic Sea cables as act of sabotage, minister says
The damaging of two undersea fiber-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea must be seen as an act of sabotage, although it is still unclear who is responsible, German Defense minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” Pistorius said before a meeting with EU defense ministers in Brussels.
“Therefore we have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a ‘hybrid’ action. And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage.”
Kyiv urges ‘decisive action’ after report on banned chemical weapons
Kyiv: Kyiv on Tuesday blamed Russia and urged action after the international chemical weapons watchdog said banned riot control gas had been found in Ukrainian soil samples from the front line.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of using chemical weapons in the conflict, with Kyiv’s Western allies claiming Moscow has employed banned weapons.
“We call on our partners to take decisive action to stop the aggressor and bring those responsible for crimes to justice. True peace can only be achieved through strength, not appeasement,” the foreign ministry said.
“Russia’s use of banned chemicals on the battlefield once again demonstrates Russia’s chronic disregard for international law,” a statement added.
Russia is yet to react to the report by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which brought the first confirmation of the use of riot control gas in areas where active fighting is taking place in Ukraine.
The OPCW’s Chemical Weapons Convention strictly bans the use of riot control agents including CS, a type of tear gas, outside riot control situations when it is used as “a method of warfare.”
CS gas is non-lethal but causes sensory irritation including to the lungs, skin and eyes.
The evidence handed over by Ukraine to the OPCW enabled it to “corroborate... the chain of custody of the three samples collected from a trench in Ukraine located along the confrontation lines with the opposing troops, had been maintained,” the organization said.
It stressed however that the report did “not seek to identify the source or origin of the toxic chemical.”
OPCW director-general Fernando Arias “expressed grave concern” over the findings.
“All 193 OPCW Member States, including the Russian Federation and Ukraine, have committed never to develop, produce, acquire, stockpile, transfer or use chemical weapons,” he said in a statement.
India to send 5,000 extra troops to quell Manipur unrest
- Fresh periodic clashes of troubled state located in country’s northeast have killed 16 people so far
- Manipur rocked by clashes since 18 months between Hindu majority and Christian Kuki community
NEW DELHI: India will deploy an extra 5,000 paramilitary troops to quell unrest in Manipur, authorities said Tuesday, a week after 16 people were killed in fresh clashes in the troubled state.
Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than 18 months between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, dividing the state into ethnic enclaves.
Ten Kuki militants were killed when they attempted to assault police last week, prompting the apparent reprisal killing of six Meitei civilians, whose bodies were found in Jiribam district days later.
New Delhi has “ordered 50 additional companies of paramilitary forces to go to Manipur,” a government source in New Delhi with knowledge of the matter told AFP on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak with media.
Each company of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), a paramilitary unit overseen by the home ministry and responsible for internal security, has 100 troops.
The Business Standard newspaper reported that the additional forces would be deployed in the state by the end of the week.
India already has thousands of troops attempting to keep the peace in the conflict that has killed at least 200 people since it began 18 months ago.
Manipur has been subject to periodic Internet shutdowns and curfews since the violence began last year.
Both were reimposed in the state capital Imphal on Saturday after the discovery of the six bodies prompted violent protests by the Meitei community.
The ethnic strife has also displaced tens of thousands of people in the state, which borders war-torn Myanmar. Incensed crowds in the city had attempted to storm the homes of several local politicians.
Local media reports said several homes of lawmakers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs the state, were damaged in arson attacks during the unrest.
Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and jobs. Rights groups have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.
