Ecological disaster off Colombo coast

The fire and subsequent sinking of the X-press Pearl, the 4 month old Singapore based container ship was a true ecological disaster. 

Almost 25 days after it got sunk, the 15,000 container ship X-press Pearl that entered service in February of 2021 registered in Singapore, gross tonnage of 31,650 T, the ecological damage it does to the waters and sea coast of Sri Lanka and possible parts of Indonesia and India are quite grave.

Thousands of tonnes of plastic pellet debris have been removed from the Sri Lankan coastsouth of Colombo.

It was a dangerous cargo of Nitric acid in the ship that stated leaking which resulted in the fire and the subsequent gutting and sinking of the ship. If the Port authorities at Hamdad Qatar or Jebel Ali UAE had heeded to their earlier request in right earnest, this major ecological disaster in this part of Asia could have been avoided.

The ship that sank to the bottom of the Indian ocean at a depth of 68 metres, now poses a risk as the items inside its fully loaded 15,000 containers containing almost 31,600 tonnes of merchandise from medicines, plastic pellets (nurdles), machinery, flowers, eatables etc.. could leak out for years together.

How long will this pollution last ? Experts say this could be a disaster on the Sri Lankan coast for many years to come.

The picture are taken courtesy Washington Post. The picture on the right gives the extent of spill that has even reached the shores of Indonesia.

The major learning one can get from this accident are majorly three

1. Never mix dangerous chemicals cargo along with other cargo on commercial container ships.

2. Liquid chemicals containers need to have double walls to prevent leakages

3. Liquid chemicals containers should be arranged to the sides of the cargo hold to make it easy for identification and unloading in case of a mishap.

The rescue efforts for such accidents  will have to be an international one coordinated across different countries. The oil spill off Florida coast after explosion on 20 April 2010 of the Deep Water Horizon oil drilling platform of British Petroleum, caused massive damage of about 1300 miles of Florida coast (BP got away with just a $4 billion fine). 

Let us not allow this spill of plastic pellets and other items including medicines, machinery etc pose a great damage to the South Asian waters in the years to come. Click here for the Washington Post report ..

George