The
Forest Department has filed a Tk 1 billion damage suit against the owners of
the two cargo ships involved in Tuesday's collision, leading to a massive oil
spill in Sundarbans' Shela River.
The Ministry of Shipping
and the Forest Department have constituted two committees to probe the spill of
more than 350,000 litres of furnace oil in the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World
Heritage site.
MS Harun & Co, the
owner of the capsized oil tanker, 'OT Southern Star 7’, has begun salvage
operations with the help of three private rescue vessels.
Two of the ships have
towed away the damaged vessel to prevent it from sinking fully.
Two ships of the Navy
and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) have started for
the spot.
The damaged tanker
remained in the same position since Monday with its fore submerged and aft
above water.
Coast Guard personnel conducting
the salvage operation said they could not trace the cargo ship’s Master
Mokhlesur Rahman until Wednesday morning.
'OT Southern Star 7' was
on its way to a power plant in Gopalganj from the Khulna Padma Oil Depot,
carrying 357,664 litres of furnace oil.
After setting off on
Monday afternoon, it anchored on the Shela River at the forest's Chandpai Range
for the night.
The taker was hit from
behind by another empty cargo ship 'Total' around 5am Tuesday amid dense fog,
Mongla Coast Guard's Contingent Commander (West Zone) Captain Mehedi Masud said
earlier.
MS Harun & Co
Manager Md Giasuddin said seven crew members of the tanker swam to the shore
but Master Rahman could not.
After surveying a 20 sq
km area inside the forest, Assistant Forest Conservator Abul Kalam Azad said he
thought all of the 357,664 litres of furnace oil from the tanker had spilled.
This correspondent found
stains of oil on trees on the banks of the Shela during a visit on boat from
Monga to Joymoni pier on Wednesday morning during low tides.
Forest Department
officials said an oil slick had spread to Andharmanik, Nandabala, Joymoni and
Harintana areas through the canals linked to the Shela River.
Oil slick was seen also
in the Rupsha River.
Shipping Minister
Shajahan Khan told reporters on Wednesday that two BIWTA salvage ships --
Pratyaya and Nirvik -- had started for the spot from Narayanganj and Barisal
respectively.
He said tugboat
Kandari-10 was on its way to Bagerhat from Chittagong.
The minister said
powdered chemicals would be sprayed from Kandari-10 so that the oil on the
water subsided and risk of reduction of oxygen in the water declined.
Commander Monir Mallick
of Bangladesh Navy's Khulna region said that two of their ships -- Shah Paran
and Akteruddin -- started for the spot from Mongla and Hiron Point respectively
with 16 divers on board.
He said they would try
to use ancient method of using bamboos and banana trees to remove the oil from
the water surface.
Minister Khan said the
authorities had identified ‘Total' which hit the tanker.
He said ‘stern actions’
would be taken against owners of the vessel.
Assistant Forest
Conservator Abul Kalam Azad filed a Tk 1 billion compensation suit against
owners of ‘Total’ and Southern Star 7 over the incident.
The Forest Department
constituted a three-member committee headed by Assistant Conservator of
Chandpai Range at Sundarban's West Zone Belayet Hossain to probe the accident.
The other members of the
committee are Chandpai Station’s Abul Kalam Azad and Dhangmari Station’s
Prahlad Chandra.
Shipping Department’s
Nautical Surveyor and Examiner Captain Giasuddin Ahmed is leading the shipping
ministry-formed probe committee. The three-member committee also includes
Shipping Department Special Officer (Marine Safety) Golam Mainuddin Hassan and
an executive magistrate.
The shipping
ministry-formed committee has been asked to find out the cause of the accident,
determine the loss, identify those responsible for it and make suggestions to prevent
its recurrence.
Forest Department
officials said the situation was getting worse as the local government offices,
including the Forest Department and Mongla Port Authority, had no tools to
control or clean up the oil spilled.
Sundarbans east region
Divisional Forest Department official Amir Hussain Chowdhury told bdnews24.com:
"The Mrigmari-Nandabala-Andharmanik dolphin sanctuary is facing serious
threat due to the oil spill. The sanctuary may have to be moved."
The Sundarbans is the
biggest roaming ground for Irabati Dolphins locally known as Sushuk. The area
adjacent to the Shela River has been declared dolphin sanctuary by the
government.
Biodiversity and ecology
researcher Pavel Partha told bdnews24.com: "The oil will reduce the amount
of oxygen in the water. This will create a crisis for all the aquatic creatures
including the dolphins."
He was concerned that
the plants and aquatic resources of the mangrove forest would be fatally
harmed.
His concerns were echoed
by professor of Khulna University's environmental science department Dilip
Kumar Dutta.
"This huge amount
of oil on the water would heavily affect the coastal biodiversity for a long
time," he said.
He said there was a slim
chance that high and low tides would fast clean up the oil from that part of
the river because water flow in the downstream was not strong.
The Ghashiakhali
channel, used as India-Bangladesh water protocol route and maritime
communication route for the country's southern region, was closed nearly three
years ago after Mongla's Nala River and Rampal's Kumar River filled up.
Since then BIWTA has
been using Shela River inside the Sundarbans as an alternative route.
Environmentalists had
demanded closure of the waterway on several occasions over the years as it had
a great risk of ecological disasters.
On Sept 30, a cargo
vessel carrying raw materials for a cement factory capsized at Mongla Port's
Pashur Channel.
Only 18 days earlier,
another vessel carrying similar materials went down at Harhbarhia in the same
channel.
Both ships are yet to be
salvaged.
Minister Khan said the
channel should be closed to protect the biodiversity of the Sundarbans.
Source: bdnews24. 12 December 2014
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