Pakistan, UN Officials Assess Messy Oil Spill

KARACHI, Pakistan, August 29, 2003 (ENS) – An emergency oil spill response specialist from the United Nations environmental agency is on his way to Karachi, Pakistan to help authorities assess damage from the breakup of an oil tanker earlier this month. Pakistani officials fear that stormy weather forecast for the next few days could spread spilled oil into fragile mangrove forests and turtle nesting beaches along the Arabian Sea coast.

Pakistan requested United Nations assistance after the MT Tasman Spirit ran aground off the Port of Karachi during a monsoon storm on July 27 and broke up two weeks later, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), Klaus Toepfer, said today.

The 24 year old oil tanker, owned by Polembros Shipping Ltd., was carrying 62,000 tons of Iranian crude oil, under charter to the Pakistan National Shipping Corporation. Pakistan has announced it will impose a fine of close to $200,000 on the vessel's owners.

Oily waves roll toward the Karachi shoreline from the grounded tanker Tasman Spirit. (Photo © A. Aslam / WWF-Pakistan)

The spill has fouled some 16 kilometers (10 miles) of the Karachi coastline. Some of the sticky oil reached Sandspit beach on Thursday, observers say.

Pakistani authorities have so far drained more than 25,000 metric tons of crude oil from the Greek registered tanker, but an operation to siphon off thousands more tons was delayed last weekend after an oil salvage ship developed technical problems in heavy weather.

Meanwhile, the rear section of the grounded vessel is leaking continuously, and the salvors estimate 8,000 to 9,000 tons of oil are still aboard the ship. The Sea Angel, a salvage tanker with a storage capacity of 6,500 tons, arrived Thursday and was brought alongside the Tasman Sea today.

At first, Chairman of the Karachi Port Trust, Ahmed Hayat, said the owners of the Tasman Spirit would be fined just under $200,000 for polluting the sea, disagreed with environmentalists' concerns that marine life, including the endangered green and olive ridley turtles that nest on nearby beaches, could suffer for years.

But today, Hayat is concerned as are other top level Pakistani officials. President Pervez Musharraf established a Tasman Spirit oil spill coordination committee headed by Sindh Chief Secretary Dr. Mutawwakil Qazi, which met at the Sindh Secretariat Thursday and today.

The committee intends to conduct an assessment of the spill's impact on the environment and public health so that damages can be claimed, officials said Thursday. Documentation of the spill's impact will help in planning a strategy to deal with any future spills, they said.

Thursday's meeting was attended by representatives of the Karachi Port Trust and the Pakistan Navy, as well as national fisheries, ports and shipping agencies, the Maritime Security Agency, and Karachi Fish Harbour, federal, provincial, and city government representatives.

Toepfer praised the difficult salvage, oil removal and recovery efforts undertaken to date by the Pakistani authorities, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), UNEP’s sister agency, and oil tanker industry representatives.

He said the incident underscores the importance of regional contingency plans and cooperation agreements, which could help mobilize oil spill fighting equipment and expertise from within neighboring countries in times of crisis. UNEP coordinates 15 Regional Seas Conventions and Action Plans designed to help countries protect their common marine and coastal environments.

WWF–Pakistan is playing an advisory role in the situation. “Such an accident will leave long lasting adverse impacts on marine life, coastal plants, and wildlife," said Hammad Naqi Khan, director of the Environmental Pollution Unit for WWF–Pakistan. "Toxics and persistent chemicals including hydrocarbons can accumulate in food chains, resulting in impairment of the reproductive system and damage to the renal or nervous system. For example, ingestion of oil causes intestinal disorders, renal or liver failure. Egg laying in seabirds may be depressed."

Khan said Pakistani officials do not have strong oil spill contingency plans in place to deal with an accident like that of the Tasman Spirit.

“The Karachi Port Trust has developed an Oil Spill Contingency Plan in this regard, but still has a long way towards its full implementation," Khan said. "The Maritime Security Agency has also developed a draft marine oil spill contingency plan, but it is yet to be finalized, documented and implemented."

A Greenpeace supporter from Karachi wrote to the environmental organization, "This has already created a disaster for the marine life killing thousands of sea animals already including hundreds of rare species including lobsters, sea horse, jellyfish. The stinky smell is so strong that the adjacent areas of the entire coastline have become inaccessible for living."

Small children and senior citizens are having severe respiratory and digestion problems, the observer wrote. Another observer told Greenpeace to expect, "a lot of family suicides in those same oil covered waters by the fishermen that have become jobless and already have nothing to eat."