It will take months to clean beaches: Expert

Chairman of the local shipping agency arrested and granted bail

By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lanka would have to clean the beaches affected by the MV X-Press Pearl for months on end, senior environmental lawyer and Chairman of the Centre of Environmental Justice (CEJ), Ravindranath Dabare told The Island yesterday.

“The beach clean-up must go on. If you look at similar incidents in other countries, debris keeps piling up on beaches for months. We have to keep at it and that will cost money.”

Dabare said that the CEJ had filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court the previous week against the government and the operators of the MV X-Press Pearl, over the environmental damage caused by the ship disaster.

The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), Chief Attorney-at-Law Dharshani Lahandapura yesterday said a marine ecology team from the United Nations would shortly visit Sri Lanka to assess the environmental damages.

They will advise the MEPA and Central Environmental Authority (CEA) on future action to be taken with regard to the environmental destruction caused and the legal proceedings.

Lahandapura said the UN team comprised an expert in Toxicology and an expert in environmental damage analysis.

The Colombo High Court yesterday released on bail Arjuna Hettiarachchi, the chairman of the local shipping agency representing the ‘X-Press Pearl’. He was arrested by the CID. After being produced before the Colombo High Court Judge Damith Thotawatta releaased him on a cash bond of Rs 100,000 and two personal bonds of Rs 1 million each.

The judge barred Hettiarachchi from leaving the country. His passport was impounded. The judge further ordered the Immigration and Emigration Controller to refrain from issuing a new passport to the accused.

Hettiarachchi has been charged under the Marine Pollution Protection Act. Investigations carried out by the CID into the ‘X-Press Pearl’ incident have revealed that the local agent had deleted several e-mails exchanged with the ill-fated vessel’s captain.