Courting disaster, with no proper plan to handle it
In its desperate quest to chase after every possible dollar on offer, are the authorities inviting disaster after disaster into the country is the question on many a lip. A few months ago, in the midst of a pandemic it was inviting Ukrainian tourists. More recently, Indian workers transiting. Now, a stricken ship.
An environmental and economic catastrophe, the worst of its kind as they say, has occurred by the fire and the consequent sinking of the ‘X-Press Pearl’ outside the Colombo harbour. The vessel's owners issued a statement to say that the ship applied to the western Indian port of Hazira and the Qatari port of Hamand to offload a leaking container of nitric acid, but the requests were denied. The response given was there were no special facilities or expertise immediately available to deal with the leaking acid. The company complained that those ports took the attitude; "not in our backyard". And the ship continued its journey merrily towards Colombo.
The multimillion dollar questions are 1) did the ship’s captain deliberately withhold information of the leak from Sri Lankan authorities (before the fire occurred when the ship was already in Sri Lankan waters) and 2) if so, did the Sri Lanka Ports Authority take matters concerning dangerous cargo on board too lightly. Post-mortems are in progress but one thing is crystal clear, the Sri Lankan authorities failed to prevent the disaster of this magnitude at its very door-step.
The livelihoods of thousands of fishermen have been ruined in the meantime. So have been the pristine beaches on the western coastline -- grievously damaged together with the marine and coral life in the waters. Millions of plastic pellets have littered the beaches. Water resources scientists speak of the potential of acid rain when nitric acid is mixed with seawater.
Post-mortems, for which the Sri Lankan authorities seem to have an appetite after ignoring looming disasters, show multiple agencies working without one command structure. In this instance, there is now even the question of whether dousing the fire on board by pouring water on nitric acid only aggravated the situation due to the chemical reaction from the mix.
For a country that has one of the best transshipment container ports in the world, and looks forward to its harbours as the future engine of growth, the corresponding investment in planning and equipment and with no proper drill to handle accidents at sea is a terribly poor show. Questions have also been raised whether Sri Lanka has signed international conventions to pursue insurance claims against errant shippers, and if not, why not.
The 'great escape' from the super-tanker MV Diamond’s near sinking off the southeast coast of Sri Lanka with gallons and gallons of diesel and crude oil only last September has taught no lessons to the authorities to rectify the shortcomings. The simple answer appears to be to call the Indian Coast Guard for assistance and seek compensation. Even the case of compensation in the MV Diamond case is reeking with sordid questions.
Coincidentally, next Tuesday (June 8) marks World Oceans Day which tellingly, this year has as its theme; ‘The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods’.
Despite all the brouhaha about Sri Lanka's geopolitical significance being located in a crucial world shipping lane, and what a great maritime hub it is going to be with a new port in Hambantota and now the Port City in Colombo, much of the talk reminds one of the local idiom, ‘talk is by palanquin, but the walk is by foot’.