Oil leak stops from sinking ship, slick danger unabated (Second Lead)

MUMBAI - An ecological disaster loomed large off Mumbai and the Konkan coastline due to an oil slick though the Coast Guard Monday said it had stopped the leak from the sinking Panamanian ship in Mumbai harbour.

The Coast Guard announced that the ships and aircraft engaged in the pollution control response reported this evening that the oil spill from the ship had virtually stopped.

However, they were still closely monitoring the situation, especially since the presence of hazardous and inflammable chemicals laden containers was confirmed this evening.

Panamanian cargo carrier MSC Chitra and a St. Kitts ship MV Khalijia-III Saturday morning collided outside the Mumbai harbour, barely five km from south Mumbai.

While the St. Kitts ship sustained severe damage to its bow and has been grounded inside the port, the hull of the Chitra was breached on the port side.

Built in 1980, the 33,113 ton-Chitra has about 1200 tonnes of fuel oil in the ruptured tanks on the port side and remaining in her starboard side which is out of the water. A total of 2,700 tonnes of fuel oil and 300 tonnes of diesel oil is on board.

Of the total 1,219 containers it was carrying at the time of the sea accident, 512 were loaded on the deck, including the ones containing hazardous material, and the other 707 were below deck.

Top officials, including Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and Environment Minister Suresh Shetty conducted aerial surveys of the disaster-hit areas Monday.

Shetty was closeted with officials from various departments since early morning to discuss the oil spillage that threatens the Konkan coastline comprising Thane, Mumbai, Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg.

Another serious hazard was caused by the falling of massive containers from the ship — according to Director-General of Shipping Satish Agnihotri, around 120 have already fallen off.

This poses a major safety hazard to ships entering and leaving the Mumbai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, and virtually stopped all normal maritime activity in the country’s largest and busiest ports handling nearly 70 percent of all maritime trade.

Describing the situation as “extremely serious”, Chavan said that the urgent requirement is to remove the remaining oil on the ship, estimated at around 2,500 tonnes and to retrieve the containers which are floating dangerously around and blocking the shipping channels to the two ports.

A new danger that has now come to light is the toxic and inflammable nature of the cargo in 31 containers which were loaded on the deck of the grounded ship.

“It is not clear whether these containers have also fallen off, but considering that the vessel is almost heeled over, it would be fair to assume that these containers would fall off, if not already in the water,” Agnihotri told media persons.

The state pollution control authorities have been alerted to help out in the relief operations and all fishing activities have been stopped until the situation can be brought under control.

The official efforts to detect the oil spill were supplemented by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) which set up several teams to survey the coastline of Mumbai and Raigad.

BNHS scientist Deepak Apte said that oil slicks were found at various locations, including Kihim, Sasvane, Revas and Mandwa on Raigad, though officials have denied it.

Apte said that teams of scientists are also collecting samples and start analysing them by Wednesday.

The state government Sunday requested the BNHS to conduct a survey and report its findings to enable the authorities initiate urgent steps to mitigate the disaster.

Meanwhile, the 800,000-strong fishing community in Maharashtra Monday demanded compensation for what they claimed were huge losses to their trade following the oil spill.

The state government and maritime authorities have banned all fishing activities in and around the Mumbai coast till the oil slick is brought under control while the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai cautioned people to refrain from consuming sea products.

This has proved to be a double blow for the fishing community, especially the small and marginal fishermen who ply their trade on a daily basis, the Maharashtra Fishermen’s Association said here.

Association chief Damodar Tandel has written to Chavan demanding compensation of Rs.10,000 per month for all the small fishermen till the situation normalises.

The country’s premier nuclear facility, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, taken aback by the oil spill in its vicinity, has initiated precautions over drawing water from the Arabian Sea for its various facilities.

While the Coast Guard have alerted the BARC about the oil slick moving towards its vicinity, officials of BARC declined to comment on the matter.

The BARC uses sea water for its two research reactions - Dhruv and Cirus - for cooling purposes.