Port trust has no disaster mgmt plan for oil spills…….Viju B & Simit Bhagat
Mumbai: Enviromentalists have urged the government to find ways and means to curb the impact of the oil spill that has been systemically destroying the beaches of Alibaug and Mumbai. The Mumbai port trust, in spite of its responsibilities under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and Maritime Pollution (MARPOL), does not seem to have any disaster management plan in place to provide quick response to oil spills. The oil remains indefinitely in the coastal waters of Mumbai, Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz Foundation said.
TOI on Monday reported on how an oil spill from MSC Chitra that occurred last week had polluted the Colaba coast. Oil is a complex mixture containing substances like benzene, heavy metals and arsenicall known to cause health problems such as cancer, birth defects or miscarriages, Abdulali said.
In the mean time, soil samples tested by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) have revealed high levels of contamination from the oil spill-affected Awas Beach and INS Kunjali site in Navy Nagar.
The samples have revealed that the soil at Awas Beach contained 60,000 mg/kg of total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH) while international permissible limit is 1,000 mg/kg. On the other hand, at INS Kunjali, the oil contamination on zero day was 3,81,000 mg/kg, the TERI report said. Dr Banwari Lal, director of TERI said, No permissible limits have been set for oil contamination of soil in India. In future, we hope that regulatory authorities set the standard limit so that polluters can be penalised.