Sri Lanka: There have been 1,486 containers on board the sinking ship.
Colombo:
A cargo ship is sinking off Sri Lanka’s primary port of Colombo after a 13-day fireplace that already precipitated the island’s worst marine environmental injury.
The Indian Ocean nation is now battling to avert a attainable oil leak that might compound the air pollution attributable to tonnes of plastic which have swamped seashores.
How large is the ship?
The Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl is nearly model new, made in China and commissioned in February.
Its total size is 186 metres (610 ft), concerning the dimension of 1 and a half soccer pitches. The peak is about 45 meters (150 ft) and width is 34 meters (112 ft). It’s constructed to hold 2,700 containers. Gross tonnage is 31,600.
The ship was heading to Colombo from Gujarat in India when the blaze began, having beforehand visited Qatar and Dubai.
What was in its cargo?
There have been 1,486 containers on board. Out of that, 81 containers had been labeled as holding “harmful cargo.”
There have been 25 tonnes of nitric acid, 28 containers of plastic pellets in addition to a container listed as “environmentally hazardous substance liquid.”
A big amount of lubricants, meals, cosmetics, lead ingots and some autos had been additionally on board.
How did the hearth begin?
Sri Lanka’s Environmental Safety Authority suspects it was triggered by a nitric acid leak that had began on Might 11 earlier than the vessel entered Sri Lankan waters.
Ports in Qatar and India had refused to dump the leaking nitric acid and the vessel arrived in Sri Lanka with the leak.
The primary fireplace reported on Might 20 was put out by the vessel’s crew utilizing its personal firefighting tools, however two hours later the ship issued an attraction for assist from Sri Lanka’s port authority.
How was the hearth put out?
Tugs from the Colombo port and the Sri Lanka navy tried to douse the flames, however robust monsoon winds unfold the hearth and made the operation troublesome.
Utilizing water to douse the chemical fireplace might have additionally fanned the flames.
Assist was then sought from India’s coastguard on Might 25 and the Dutch salvage agency SMIT was additionally referred to as in by the homeowners of the vessel.
Lastly, the hearth was declared extinguished on June 1 after a lot of the cargo was incinerated.
What’s the ecological injury?
Sri Lanka is but to estimate the influence and has requested Australia to assist put together an evaluation.
Nevertheless, tonnes of plastic pellets carried on the vessel have already swamped a coastal stretch of over 80 kilometres (50 miles) alongside Sri Lanka’s western seaboard, prompting a ban on fishing.
On some seashores, piles of pellets — the uncooked materials to make packaging and different plastic items — had been two ft deep.
They aren’t biodegradable and might stay for many years within the setting. They will additionally trigger issues for marine wildlife like fish and turtles if ingested.
What may occur now?
The Marine Atmosphere Safety Authority (MEPA) is working to salvage the ship and make sure that its bunker oil — 297 tonnes of heavy gasoline and 51 tonnes of marine gasoline oil — don’t leak into the Indian Ocean.
Though that is comparatively little — the 1989 Exxon Valdez catastrophe noticed some 35,000 tonnes of crude oil spilled — a leak may nonetheless trigger main environmental degradation.
On Thursday, MEPA readied oil dispersants, booms and skimmers.
An Indian coast guard vessel already within the space has tools to take care of an oil slick earlier than it may attain seashores, in response to the Sri Lankan navy, which has requested extra help.
Sri Lanka might try to refloat the vessel and transfer it into deeper water.
Worldwide transport knowledgeable and lawyer Dan Gunasekera stated that divers could possibly be used to pump out the bunker oil safely.
“We are able to assume that for the reason that ship is simply three months outdated, it had good techniques to make sure there isn’t any leak from gasoline tanks in an eventuality like this,” Gunasekera instructed AFP.
What occurred to the crew?
The 25-member crew are secure with solely two injured whereas evacuating the ship on Might 25. They’re present process coronavirus quarantine in Colombo.
The Russian captain and the chief engineer have been questioned for 14 hours by felony investigators probing the hearth and the environmental injury.
A 3rd officer, an Indian nationwide, has additionally been grilled and all three are banned from leaving the island pending additional investigations.
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)