After 12 days of burning consistently at sea, the fire aboard a Singapore-registered container vessel off the coast of Sri Lanka was finally extinguished on Tuesday. In the wake of the incident, Sri Lanka is assessing the cause of the fire as well as the grave environmental damage it caused. Colombo is also looking to file criminal charges against the Singaporean firm accountable for the mishap.
The container vessel called X-Press Pearl is operated by the Singapore-based X-Press Feeders. The company now faces criminal charges under Sri Lanka’s Marine Pollution Prevention Act of 2008. In addition, civil claims will also be made subsequently as a penalty for the damage caused by the pollution. On Monday, X-Press Feeders released a statement saying that “select seafarers have been helping local police with their enquiries into the fire and are cooperating with investigators. We will respect this process and not publicly discuss operational details until the investigation has been completed.”
“From the very first day, we have been collecting data regarding the ship and the pollution. After we settled the immediate issue of the fire and the safety of the crew, it is high time we take legal action,” Dr. P. B. Terney Pradeep Kumara, general manager of Sri Lanka’s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), told The Straits Times. MEPA has lodged a complaint with the Harbour Police in Colombo, which will start taking statements from the ship’s captain and crew that is recently out of quarantine, which was required under the country’s COVID-19 protocols.
The cargo ship was carrying 1,486 containers that included 25 tonnes of hazardous nitric acid and other chemicals and cosmetics on board. The ship was headed for Colombo from Gujarat’s Hazira port after visiting Qatar and Dubai. Following a short halt at Sri Lanka, it was scheduled to go to Malaysia and Singapore. However, on May 20, a fire broke out on the cargo ship 9.5 nautical miles away from the port of Colombo.
Although a rescue operation was successfully conducted with all 25 crew members brought to shore and the fire has fortunately not resulted in an oil spill, it is being referred to as Sri Lanka’s “worst marine ecological disaster” in history. Furthermore, apart from the resultant ecological damage, the Fisheries Ministry is also assessing the expected losses to 4,500 fishermen and the seafood industry in Negombo. This has given the Sri Lankan government enough reason to launch a probe into the matter and criminally charge those accountable for the accident.
In the aftermath of the fire, tonnes of granules of microplastics, dead sea turtles, birds, and fish were found along the beaches of Negombo, which has fuelled concerns about the extent of the accident’s ecological damage. While samples of “polluted seawater and burnt debris” are currently being examined to investigate the “scientific cost assessment” of the devastation, MEPA determined that the incident has caused years of environmental damage. Moreover, it also warned that the emission of Nitrogen Dioxide could also result in acid rain, urging residents of the coastal area to avoid exposure to rain in the coming days.