Two ministers, whose offices are closely linked with the Sundarbans, yesterday gave conflicting views about the oil spill and its environmental impacts; the same day a government inspection team said they had not seen any dead dolphin or crocodile.
As of yesterday – 10 days after a tanker went down the Sela River with over 350,000 litres of furnace oil – local people have managed to collect only around 65,000 litres.
Despite having a few options, the government failed to employ any mechanism to remove the oil, already spread over a big area in the forest, which environmentalists fear is detrimental for the rich vegetation and wildlife.
Several media, including the Dhaka Tribune, have already published photographs and reports on the sighting of distressed wildlife.
Echoing Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan, Environment and Forest Minister Anwar Hossain Manju yesterday said at the secretariat that the incident was not very big.
“The incident is unfortunate. But when you compare it with other such incidents in world history, it is not so big,” he reportedly said during a meeting with the inspection committee.
Nurul Karim, additional secretary of the forest ministry and the chief of the inspection committee, told reporters after the meeting that their report on the Sundarbans oil spill was nearly complete and they had not found any dead dolphin or crocodile.
He said they had drawn the conclusion by talking to the local citizens. “Although the 31km stretch of the Sela and Pashur Rivers are a dolphin sanctuary, they are mostly seen near a breeding point along the Pashur River,” Nurul told reporters.
However, Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon said in a programme in Chittagong yesterday that the oil spill was a massive environmental disaster for the biggest mangrove forest in the world.
“There is no doubt that it is a disaster. The Sundarbans is a mangrove forest. The trees take food through the roots. No trees are likely to survive if oil enters their roots. Water is also getting polluted.
“The government has already involved the local people to remove oil from the water. We have also sought the United Nations’ help to remove the oil. They said they will help. But this is a major disaster for us,” Menon said.
He also told reporters after attending a tourism fair in Chittagong that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had ordered the reopening of the Ghashiakhali channel. “If that route could be opened, no commercial water transport needs to use the Sundarbans,” the minister said.
When asked why the inspection team did no see any dead dolphin or crocodile, political ecology researcher and DU Professor Tanzim Uddin Khan told the Dhaka Tribune that it would not be wise to say anything without seeing the report.
“But, we also need to know how much area the inspection committee has covered. Dead bodies of marine creatures take time to surface. Sometimes corpses get washed to the sea during low tides. So, unless they have covered the entire area, the committee should not say that no dolphin or crocodile has died,” Tanzim said.
“Dolphins moving away from a sanctuary is a negative indicator. If they cannot live in a sanctuary, it means that something is very wrong,” he said.
“Let us agree with the government that it is not big. But they have failed to manage even this small one. What would they do if there is a big disaster?” he inquired.
“The environmental impact will take time to get visible. Even if a tiny plankton dies, it will eventually affect the entire food chain. That will not be very good,” he warned. Rofiqul Islam Babul, local contractor of Padma Oil Company in Sundarbans, told the Dhaka Tribune that the manual oil collection will not continue for too long - may be a few more days at best.
UN experts arrive in Dhaka
In response to a government request, a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) has team arrived in Dhaka to support the government’s drive to clean up the oil spill in the Sundarbans, said a UN media note yesterday evening, UNB reported.
The advance team arrived on Tuesday while the additional team is expected to be here over the weekend. It will also conduct an assessment and advise the government on recovery and risk reduction measures.
This UN support is led by the UNDP with assistance from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Joint Environment Unit (JEU), and other partner countries including the US, the UK, France and the EU’s Civil Protection Mechanism.
