Tug boats drag split Japanese supertanker off Mauritian coast
The Japanese cargo ship that ran aground in late July off the coast of Mauritius has split into two, with tug boats starting to drag the detached part of the damaged vessel out to open sea, officials said on Sunday.
The cargo ship, the MV Wakashio, broke into two on Saturday afternoon, with its prow above the water while its aft-most part sinking in the reefs.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Center of Mauritius said at a press briefing Sunday afternoon that there was still approximately 30 cubic meters of oil left in the engine room, but continued poor weather will make it difficult to remove.
The ship ran aground on July 25, raising major environmental concerns given that it was carrying several thousand tons of fuel. It is now planned that the cargo ship will be dragged to a ship graveyard in Alang in India's Gujarat, almost 5,000 kilometers away.
To prevent against further contamination following the major spill of the ship's fuel, several layers of containment booms and oil filters have been installed in the vulnerable coastal sites running from the Pointe d'Esny to the Blue Bay Marine Park.
So far, 841 tons of fuel oil have been reclaimed and 419 tons of solid waste cleared from the contaminated coastlines and lagoons, Kavydass Ramano, the country's minister of Environment, Solid Waste Management and Climate Change, said at the press briefing.
However, the Mauritian vice prime minister Mohammad Anwar Husnoo said that the oil spill has affected many areas, and warned it will take long to repair the damage.
'Wildlife has been affected there, because we have a lot of sensitive areas there. We have Blue Bay Marine Park, we have Ile aux Aigrette, we have other places which have been affected, so very sensitive areas, so a lot of work. Again as we discussed this morning, how we are going to clean it in the first place and then rehabilitate it over the months and years because that's going to take a long time to get rid of the oil. The rehabilitation is going to take quite a bit of time and we have been discussing this with all the experts from overseas," said Husnoo, who also serves as Minister of Local Government, Disaster and Risk Management.
(Source: Reuters)
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