X-PRESS PEARL pollutes Sri Lankan Beach

Three Indian ships participated in the battle on Thursday, and a fire broke out on a container ship off the coast of Sri Lanka because it feared it would explode and spew hundreds of tons of oil. For a week, due to strong winds on a ship registered in Singapore, the authorities feared that another oil spill would occur on Sri Lanka’s beaches. Ships of the Indian Coast Guard, along with a Sri Lankan navy ship and four private tugboats, sprayed water on X-Press pearls containing 25 tons of nitric acid.

Sri Lanka said that a military helicopter was used to dump bags of flame retardant chemicals onto the ship on Wednesday, but the fire weakened the 186-meter ship, which may have scattered and caused oil spills. Marine Environmental Protection Agency (MEPA). “The fire extended the entire length of the ship. The hull may be unstable, so we can withdraw it from the waters,” Darshani Lahandapura, president of EPA MEPA, told AFP. According to her, the Port of Colombo carries 278 tons of marine fuel and 50 tons of marine diesel. Mr. Rahandapura said, “the fire is believed to have started in a nitric acid container and spread quickly and Nitric acid leaked before entering Sri Lankan waters”.

The military will participate in cleaning the beaches

“If the problem is resolved by then, we won’t have to deal with this crisis. The authorities have minimized the risk of acid neutralized by the sea” said Mrs. Lahandapura. And also she states that a lot of oil could reach tourists. The fishing area of Negombo, 40 kilometers north of the capital. According to her, if necessary, the military will participate in cleaning the beaches of Negombo. Control leakage. “Our best choice is to clean the beach, and we suspect that any cleanup will take weeks or even months. ”

Furthermore, the explosion, 25 X-Press Pearl crew members were evacuated on Tuesday. one of them was hospitalized with minor injuries. The ship drove about 1,500 containers from Gujarat, India to Colombo. The ship sailed for 14 kilometers at anchor. (7.5 nautical miles) can be seen from Negombo. Due to military operations, residents who collected plastic raw materials for transportation to shore on Wednesday were unable to enter the beach on Thursday.

VIDEO: Container ship off Sri Lanka burns on as debris washes ashore.
Sri Lankan Navy personnel collect debris washed ashore from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl, which has been burning for over a week pic.twitter.com/izYuCKwZ3z
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) May 28, 2021