The clean-up of the “Southern Star 7” oil spill, which has spread across an 80km range since the oil tanker capsized on the Sela River in the Sundarbans 4 days ago, has stalled because of bureaucratic foot-dragging.
In the absence of major government push to contain the ecological damage, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan crowd-sourced the clean-up effort, asking local residents to collect whatever spilled furnace oil they could. He said Padma Oil was willing to pay for it.
Naval vessel “Kandari 10” brought from Chittagong on Thursday evening, could not start to apply oil dispersant till yesterday night because it had not been cleared to do so by the Environment Ministry, Commodore Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, the chairman of Mongla Port Authority, said.
“Since we have not received clearance from the Environment and Forest Ministry to use the chemical dispersant, we are now thinking of using raw jute sacks and sponges attached to trawlers to remove floating oil from the water,” he added.
Different government agencies, including the forest and environment department, fear that the use of oil dispersant will further damage the ecology and biodiversity of the world’s single largest mangrove forest. Government agencies are delaying any decision to act until forming a clearer idea of the effects of dispersant on the mangroves, sources said.
Elbow grease
While a major government-led clean-up operation is being delayed by indecision, local people in the area are manually sopping up the floating furnace oil with sponges, encouraged by a Padma Oil offer to purchase the furnace oil for Tk30 per litre.
The clean-up so far has covered an insignificant portion of the volume of the oil spill.
Rafiqul Islam Babu, a local contractor of Padma Oil Company, said he purchased only 2,200 litres of oil collected by local people in the Joymonirgol area till yesterday evening.
“I think we will be able to purchase hardly 80-90 barrels [16,000–18,000 litres] from local people in the next few days because the spilled oil has already spread across a vast area and started to dissolve,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
On Thursday afternoon, the authorities asked local people via loudspeakers to collect oil floating on the river.
But residents said they found it difficult to gather the oil because of its rapid and continuous spread across the river and surrounding areas.
Ismail Ali, a resident of Joymonirgol village said he, together with five others, collected some 350 litres of furnace oil from the water in the last two days.
“We cannot work throughout the day to collect the oil because we have to wait for high tide as the oil detaches from the trunks of trees and soil and floats on the water during the period of high tide,” he added.
He said it would be near impossible to remove the oil completely from the vast area.
Meanwhile, two probe committees separately formed by the Shipping Ministry and the Environment and Forest Ministry yesterday visited the site to identify the causes of the accident and to measure the probable negative impacts of using oil dispersant. Neither could come to any decision.
Oil tanker “Southern Star 7,” carrying around 358,000 litres of furnace oil, sank in the Sela River at Mrigamari in the East Zone of the Sundarbans after being hit by cargo vessel “Total Cargo” at 6am on Tuesday, causing a serious threat to the existence of the mangrove forest and its natural resources.
Seven crew members of the oil tanker managed to swim ashore while its master, M Mokhlesur Rahman, remains missing.
The sunken oil tanker was salvaged by a private salvage ship under the supervision of the Bangladesh Navy on Thursday morning with two undamaged compartments containing around 100,000 litres of furnace oil.
Toxic impact
While visiting the Sela River and adjacent canals in the Sundarbans by boat, the Dhaka Tribune did not find any dead fauna or aquatic species but found the roots and trunks of trees on the banks of the river and in the tiny surrounding canals turned black by oil contamination.
Fishermen who depend on the forest said the amount of fishing was high in the first two days after the accident and subsequently declined significantly.
“I used to catch around 20kg a day, but I got only 8 kg on Thursday. I think weak aquatic species like small fishes, shrimps, crabs and others, might have died by getting entangled in the oil spill,” said Afjal Hossain Khan who lives near the Sorki canal of the nearby Mrigamari forest beat. “Perhaps the contamination of the water by the furnace oil was a reason for the reduction of the amount of fish in the nets,” he added.
Faruk Khan and his 10-year-old son, who trap crab in the Sundarbans, said that over the last few days, the number of crabs he has netted has dramatically decreased.
“During the last two days we have collected only 32 crabs weighing six kg, though we usually collect at least 20 kg in that time,” he added.
Political ecology researcher Tanzim Uddin Khan said two or three days are not enough to measure the negative impacts of the accident on different species of flora and fauna. We have to wait for some time to know the actual damage.