by Ifham Nizam

Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) Chairperson Dharshani Lahandapura, Attorney-at-Law said that removal of debris of Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl that sank in Lankan waters is set to start early November.

She said: “The Coastal area from Mannar to Dondra is cleaned daily. We have spent around 30,000 man-hours in the cleaning operation. Around 400 workers have been deployed for this work that has been going on daily for some time now. This process has to be continued for at least one more year.”

She said that special attention has been paid to clean the coastal areas in Negombo, Sarakkauwa, Mount Lavinia and Angulana.

The vessel was carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 tonnes of nitric acid, along with other chemicals and cosmetics that were loaded at the port of Hazira, India, on May 15. It caught fire off Colombo Port on May 27. After burning for 12 days, the vessel sank on June 2 as it was being towed to deeper waters.

Lahandapura said this was one of the worst-ever marine disasters the country had to ever face. Calling it a ‘man-made disaster’, she said: “This is an unfortunate incident for Sri Lanka. It has negatively impacted the country in many ways. What we are doing right now is minimizing that negative impact.”

The environmental damage inflicted by the disaster has been divided to two categories: visible and invisible, she said.

The Prime Minister’s office has instructed MEPA to expedite its process of estimating the damage caused and the cost of recovery.

“The ship is now a huge pile of debris. It took five months for that to happen. What’s left now has dwindling power of damaging the environment. Tests are still being conducted to identify any further damage.”

What remains to be done has five components: observing the status quo of the wreckage, cleaning the beach and sea bottom at the disaster site, investigating the possibility of any accidental occurrence, collecting data on damage caused to the marine and coastal environment and surveying the changes occurring on the seabed, she said.

Plastic remnants are being cleared not only from the beach surface, but going down one meter as some plastic pellets have been found buried quite deep in the sand.

A team of 40 field experts and scientists, co-chaired by Prof Ajith de Alwis, Dean of Faculty of Graduate Studies of the Moratuwa University and Prof Prshanthi Gunawardena of the Department of Forestry and Environmental Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura has been assigned the task of estimating the environmental damage.

Assistance has been rendered by 14 government agencies including the Department of the Government Analyst, Central Environment Authority and Wildlife Conservation Department. In addition laboratory assistance has been obtained from foreign countries including the UK, Australia and France.

Lahandapura said scanning the ocean bed has nearly been completed to assess the damage. Our plan was to commence debris removal at the end of this month and we’re still trying to keep to that deadline. Otherwise the project will begin in the first week of November,” she said,

The final report on damage assessment is expected to be submitted by Nov 30.