It is the worst marine environmental disaster in the history of Sri Lanka what originated when a Singapore-flagged cargo ship loaded with chemicals caught fire off the coast of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka.
It was May 20 and since then, despite Sri Lankan intervention with aid sent from India, the freighter is still burning, while volunteers are at work on the beaches near the capital in an attempt to clean them from the wave of debris and microplastics that come from the sea.
Fishing in Negombo Bay has been prohibited, along the coast there are many birds, fish and dead turtles and the beaches are covered with plastic beads. The population has been warned of the possibility of their occurrence acid rain due to the toxic fumes from the fire.
The MV X-Press Pearl ship was carrying a cargo of chemicals and raw materials for cosmetics from Hazira in Gujarat, India, to the port of Colombo. In addition to the 325 tons of fuel in the tanks – which are for now intact – the ship was carrying 1,486 containers loaded with 25 tons of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide, lubricants and other chemicals.
“This can be described as the worst marine ecological disaster,” he said Darshani lahandapura, president of the Sri Lankan Marine Pollution Authority (MEPA). A criminal investigation was opened on Sunday to try to clarify the dynamics of the fire.
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