By Ifham Nizam

Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), UK in partnership with the Centre for Environmental Justice – CEJ, Sri Lanka backs the Sri Lankan outline of a myriad of ways the International Maritime Organization (IMO) is failing to look after the environment by putting the interests of the shipping industry first.

The Marine Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA) and environmental NGOs yesterday demanded that IMO provide a new classification of hazardous substances after devastating X-Press Pearl plastic pellet spill nine miles off the Sri Lankan coast. On 25th May 2021 the Singapore-flagged cargo ship X-Press Pearl spilled 1,680 tonnes of plastic pellets, 9,700 tonnes of other plastics and toxic pollutants. With plastic accumulating on beaches up to a height of two metres, it marked the worst marine environmental disaster in the country’s history, and the single largest plastic pellet pollution event the world has ever seen.

The event follows similar incidents in Hong Kong (2012), South Africa (2017 and 2020) and in the North Sea (2019, 2020).

EIA, on behalf of the NGOs in the Clean Shipping Coalition, will be putting pressure on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) at their November meeting, demanding more than the few minutes allotted to acknowledge the gravity of the X-Press Pearl disaster, debate the classification of plastic pellets and outlining the lack of action taken to date on plastics.

 Christina Dixon, Deputy Ocean Campaign Leader of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) yesterday said:

“Although plastics from sea-based sources account for roughly 20% of plastic pollution, the pace of action to prevent plastic pollution from ships at the international level is sorely lacking.

“The recent tragedy of the X-Press Pearl in Sri Lanka is a devastating example of the impact of a lack of oversight and preventative measures. With fishing communities and marine habitats now devastated by billions of plastic pellets polluting their environment, it is the local communities left bearing the brunt of the clean-up and harm.”

IMO recognizes plastic waste in our ocean as their responsibility but is failing to live by their words. Despite the need for urgent action to protect marine ecosystems, livelihoods and coastlines the issue is slipping through the net.

“We expect to be given just a couple of minutes at the meeting to cover what has been the worst plastic pellet spill in history. The IMO principally looks after the interests of the shipping industry, but it cannot continue to do so without protecting our marine environment in parallel. It is of paramount importance they move immediately to reclassify plastic pellets as a hazardous substance on the request of Sri Lanka; a country who through zero fault of their own, will be struggling in the wake of this disaster for years to come.”

Executive Director of the Centre for Environmental Justice Hemantha Withanage said:  “Immediately after the X-Press Pearl ship accident, more than 20,000 fishermen were disallowed from fishing in the area and have lost access to their livelihood up to now. Many fish and other marine animals including 417 turtles, 46 Dolphins and 8 whales were found dead. Some of them had mistakenly eaten micro plastics as food. Most of these plastic nurdles will remain in the ocean environment for the next 500 years or more. Ship owners and the insurance company P&I club must take full responsibility for the damage caused. Furthermore, it’s time to regulate unsafe transportation of large quantities of plastic nurdles.”