Sri Lanka: A Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 tones of nitric acid along with other chemicals and cosmetics, was anchored off the port city of Negombo when a fire erupted onboard after an explosion on May 20. The Sri Lankan officials said that the country is bracing itself for the worst ever man-made environmental disaster. There is also a possibility of oil spill after the cargo ship laden with chemicals sank off its western coast.
Flaming containers filled with chemicals tumbled into the sea from the ship’s deck as emergency crews sought to contain the blaze over the ensuing two weeks. The ship, which was only four months old, began to sink early on Wednesday. The crew tried to tow the vessel to deeper water, away from the coast, but the attempt was abandoned after the rear of the ship touched the sea bed.
“From an environmental view it is Sri Lanka’s worst ever man-made disaster,” said Charitha Pattiaratchi, a professor of coastal oceanography at the University of Western Australia. The university’s modelling indicated the plastic pellets from the ship – the raw material for shopping bags – would travel as far as Indonesia, India and Somalia, he added.
“We will calculate the cost from the beginning of this incident and claim compensation,” Singapore authorities said on Thursday. They had started their own investigation into the incident.
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