A BNP probe into the Sundarbans oil spill yesterday called on the government to ban the use of the Sela River as a navigation route to avert further ecological damage to the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest.
The seven-member probe committee demanded the immediate reopening of the Mongla-Ghosiakhali route and the removal of illegal embankments on the waterways to restore the navigability of the channel.
Oil tanker Southern Star 7, with a cargo of 358,000 litres of furnace oil, sank in the river at Mrigmari area under the East Zone of the Sundarbans after being hit by cargo vessel Total Cargo at 6am on December 9, causing a devastating oil spill.
The probe body, led by former minister Hafiz Uddin Ahmed, blamed the government for damaging the ecology and biodiversity of the tidal mangrove forest because the vessel was forced to operate on the Sela River due to the lack of navigability of the legal waterway, the Mongla-Ghosiakhali route.
The legal navigation route has been closed since 2011 due to siltation caused by the establishment of unplanned embankments and commercial shrimp cultivation in the region which takes up saline water from the nearby rivers.
“The government must bring those responsible for the accident to book and ensure that compensation is paid to avoid such man-made disasters in future,” the probe body said in a written statement.
“The government failed to take any effective measure during the first 48 hours of the oil spill which ultimately enhanced the damage,” it said. The probe body, which included several party leaders and civil society organisations, visited the site of the accident on December 22.
