Beaches are coated with plastic pellets, and a container full of nitric acid has leaked. Sri Lankan authorities are now making preparations for an oil spill.
A burnt-out container ship that has already caused Sri Lanka’s worst maritime environmental disaster was sinking fast Wednesday with nearly 300 tonnes of oil still in its fuel tanks. The MV X-Press Pearl, carrying hundreds of containers of chemicals and plastics, burned for 13 days just outside the Colombo harbour before rescue workers finally extinguished .
Sri Lanka Ship Fire Finally Extinguished; S’pore Shipping Firm To Be Sued For Marine Pollution
The fire aboard a Singapore-registered container vessel off Colombo port was finally extinguished on Tuesday (June 1), after causing extensive marine pollution in Sri Lanka’s waters.
With the blaze finally put out after 12 days, the authorities said they were turning their attention to probing the cause of the fire and placing accountability for it.
The X-Press Pearl is operated by the Singapore-based X-Press Feeders. Flying a Singapore flag, the ship was carrying 1,486 containers and had 25 tonnes of nitric acid, other chemicals and cosmetics on board.
Sri Lanka halts towing burnt X Press Pearl ship
Xinhua
03 Jun 2021, 02:05 GMT+10
COLOMBO, June 2 (Xinhua) The Sri Lankan Navy on Wednesday said that operations to tow the burnt X Press Pearl ship had been halted after the rear end of the vessel had hit the sea bed. Navy Spokesman Captain Indika De Silva told Xinhua that following a few hours of operations to tow the vessel into deep seas, operations were halted as the rear end had hit the sea bed and this could cause further damages. By Wednesday evening, the front part of the vessel was still seen floating on the water while the rear part had sunk.