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Oil slick

August 8, 2011

Work is still going on to clean up an oil spill from a cargo ship which sank off the coast of Mumbai, India's financial hub, last week. The government claimed on Monday that there was 'no immediate threat.'

https://p.dw.com/p/Refl
The MV Rak Carrier off the Mumbai coast on the day that it sank
The MV Rak Carrier off the Mumbai coast on the day that it sankImage: picture alliance/dpa

The cargo vessel MV Rak Carrier was on its way from Indonesia to Gujarat, India when it ran into stormy weather and sent a distress call about 22 nautical miles off Mumbai last Thursday.

The 220-meter ship then sank with a cargo of 60,000 tons of coal, 325 tons of fuel oil and 56 tons of diesel. The 30-member crew - made up Indonesians, Jordanians and Romanians - was rescued by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.

According to a defense ministry press release on Monday, the sunken vessel has been losing around 1.5 to 2 tons of oil per hour. An aerial survey has revealed that the oil has spread about seven nautical miles around the vessel. Two Coast Guard ships are on location spraying dispersants.

Juhu Beach is where Mumbai comes to breathe in the evenings
Juhu Beach is where Mumbai comes to breathe in the eveningsImage: DW

Ecological concerns

As regards ecological concerns over the oil spill, the Maharashtra government denied reports on Monday that the oil had already reached Mumbai's famous Juhu Beach.

It said that physical inspection had showed that the furnace oil found off the Juhu coast at certain locations was around 1 to 2 milligrams per liter and too negligible to be anything other than a localized phenomenon. As such, it could not be due to the oil spill, the government claimed.

Nevertheless, fishing boats have been advised to steer clear of the area where the MV Rak Carrier sank until August 15 - an extraneous precaution since fishing is in any case banned till that date because of the annual monsoon rains.

The Directorate General of Shipping in Mumbai has stated that the MV Rak Carrier has "valid insurance cover against pollution damage."

Author: Arun Chowdhury (AFP, PTI)
Editor: Anne Thomas

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