The oil spill that followed a collision between two ships destroyed a big part of Chennai coastline.
A large quantity of oil was released
into the sea, affecting marine life and livelihoods of coastal communities.
The Chennai collision involved an LPG
tanker and the fuel carrier off the Kamarajar Port. A large number of dead
turtles and fish were washed ashore,
An independent inquiry is vital to determine the cause of the
accident. There is urgent need to protect marine life and biodiversity. Failure
to safeguard marine turtle and bird habitats, for example, is a clear violation
of the provisions of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of
Wild Animals.
It was an accident, and accidents do happen. However, the
Indian Coast Guard and others failed to rise to the occasion in the aftermath
of the collision of the two ships. The authorities should have used
sophisticated mechanical means instead of buckets to remove the oil spills.
Also, chemical means could have been used to disperse and cleanup the spills.
Had these methods been used, damages and pollution could have been kept to a
minimum. If the Coast Guard did not have advanced means, they should have
speedily sourced them from abroad. It was astonishing and pathetic to watch
workmen trying hard to manually trap the spilled oil using ordinary buckets.
There arises a lot of questions like how such accident took
place even though there was the facility of GPS based navigation system.
Administration of Chennai should try and find out the cause such accident and
make an effective investigation for the safe livelihood of aquatic creatures.
Coastline of Chennai has become dangerously polluted due to
government apathy and mismanagement. The oil spill should have been monitored
by the officials early and measures to control should have been taken earlier before
the pollution entered the waters killing turtles and fish and also making life
for the rural people miserable.
It is surprising that this ship collision accident happened
in spite of the presence of vivid GPS system to track the movement of ships. Not
only the oil spill killed marine lives like fish and turtle, it caused
pollution to the sea water at a large scale exceeding 36 kilometres in the
southern side of the sea and the damage continues further. The removal of
coastal sledge is done with volunteering with little effect. The port
authorities are not handling the situation through proper contingency
management process causing further delay to clear the effects of the spilled
oil. The relief measures should be taken on war footing to prevent further
marine lives loss and to prevent the spread over of the slick.
No comments:
Post a Comment