The cleaners have been working overtime to remove the sludge in Bay of Bengal off the Chennai coast after the collision of two shipping vessels – MT BW Maple (carrying LPG) and MT Dawn Kanchipuram (carrying petroleum oil lubricant) – on January 28 resulted in a massive oil leakage.
The latest updates:
1) The former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu O Panneerselvam visited ground zero to evaluate the clean up effort. He has assured that with 90% of the cleaning done, normalcy will soon be restored along the coastlines of Chennai.
2) DMK leader M K Stalin and Kanimozhi visited the site on February 4 and questioned the centre's reports on the ongoing cleaning.
3) Both Stalin and Kanimozhi expressed their concern for the fishermen of Chennai.
"Fishermen in the region will be compensated for the loss. Fishes caught from this region are found to be fit for consumption. There is no impact on marine flora and fauna", said Kanimozhi.
4) As of now, 123 tonnes of sludge have been removed from the sea manually.
5) 73 kilolitres of sludge have been extracted with the help of three super suckers so far.
Latest reports show that oil has spread over 72 Km along the coast. The incident has set off a blamegame among politicians.
"Blaming only one agency is only too easy. Firstly, how were three ports allowed to be built along the Chennai coast? How did they get all the necessary permits without having a real emergency response in place? After the oil spill, the police was supposed to have responded quickly and taken measures, but that did not happen. The Pollution Control has not opened its mouth in the last week. The Coastal Zone Management Authority goes around approving polluting projects in record time – why haven't they done anything?" social activist Nityanand Jayaraman, said.
According to a Kamarajar port official, they were unaware about the seepage of oil when the collision happened. It was totally dark. It was only after the daybreak that they noticed the sheen of oil through the Vessel Traffic Management System.
