Greece fumbled oil spill response, say groups

ATHENS: Greek officials fumbled their response to a minor oil spill that is now threatening beaches near Athens five days after the suspicious sinking of a tanker, environmental groups said.

“This leak happened near the country’s biggest harbour, just miles away from the operation centre of the ministry tasked with addressing such disasters,” Dimitris Ibrahim, campaign director at Greenpeace Greece, told news portal in.gr.

Adding insult to injury, the amount of oil in question was “relatively small,” Ibrahim said.

The oil spill on Sunday compromised beaches on the island of Salamis and officials were confident that it could be contained given mild wind conditions.

But by yesterday, parts of the slick had drifted miles away to the Athens coastal resort of Glyfada and was threatening the popular beaches of Voula and Vouliagmeni.

WWF Greece was likewise incredulous that “a country with heavy tanker traffic has proven unable to protect its beaches from an initially small-scale incident”.

Mayors across the coast have issued beach warnings and fishermen have been advised to avoid the area at present.

The 45-year-old vessel Agia Zoni II sank on Sunday near the island of Salamis while under anchor. The cause is still unknown. — AFP