Environmentalists and Church decry destruction of marine life
Environmentalists and the Catholic Church have lamented the disaster caused to marine life and seashores by the fire resulting from a leak of nitric acid on the Singapore-registered ship MV X-Press Pearl off the western coast of Sri Lanka, describing the devastation as “irreparable and incalculable”.
Dr. Ajantha Perera, an environmental expert, in a report published in the “Daily Mirror”, Sri Lanka’s English language daily, reminded of the Basel Convention in Switzerland on the prevention of transport of harmful waste.
Fr. Shantha Sagara Hettiarachchi, heading the 11 priest signatories to a special statement on the May 20th disaster, endorsed by Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, told Namo magazine 31st May that the authorities concerned should not turn a blind eye to the fate of the fishermen who have lost their livelihood. “This is a disaster that could have been avoided easily”, he added.
He wondered whether the ship that carried caustic soda, nitric acid, lubricants, methanol, cosmetics, etc. had also mercury in its containers. “This is a very poisonous substance that could destroy marine life completely”, he pointed out.
Members of the Sri Lankan navy remove debris washed ashore from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl on a beach in Colombo on Monday. (Reuters/AFP/Getty Images)
Fr. Hettiarachchi, a former editor of the Sinhalese language Catholic weekly, told Namo magazine that the fishermen had returned from the sea with empty fishing-nets. “The fish had disappeared”, he said.
The priest, who is the head of the Vicariate of Ja-Ela and the parish priest of Pamunugama where he hails from, said that the authorities should not think in terms of the compensation alone.
The ship caught fire off the coast of Pamunugama.
The Catholic priests, in their statement, urged authorities to use whatever funds to be received from the shipping company to provide health facilities to fishermen living in the affected areas in case of any outbreak of disease due to contamination and to clean up the polluted beaches without delay.
The area affected mainly is the home to a majority of Catholics. Coast dwellers are mostly fishermen.
