Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------- Goa:Marine Pollution Management Needed -------------------------------------------------------- by Nandkumar Kamat
There were two incidents related to petroleum hydrocarbons last week. The first one was a case of moral pollution of Goan society and the police. The second one was the marine pollution from the accidental oil spill in Aguada bay.
The first case was sensational because it proved once again that there is neither political nor bureaucratic will to finish the petroleum adulteration mafia. At Mashel, the police had raided and confiscated several barrels of diesel stored illegally. But the sealed barrels were clandestinely replaced after the panchnama with identical barrels of water. The essence of this strange case is that moral pollution has not spared the guardians of law. There are remedies to mitigate marine pollution but not moral pollution.
Ironically, it took the merchant vessel, Maritime Wisdom to instill some wisdom in the Goa administration in the form of negative national and international publicity about the oil slick, which would have impacted the tourism industry. Goa gets the highest number of domestic tourists during May. Deposition of the tar balls on the beaches of Goa after the recent oil spill may take some time. There was some confusion in reporting the oil spill incident and its subsequent progress. A section of the media rewrote the geography of Goa by 'shifting' the islands in the bay of Marmagoa to somewhere near the Canacona and Karwar coast. The exact boundaries of Marmagoa and Panaji minor ports were also inaccurately reported.
Grande island, where part of the oil slick reached is within a sensitive area from a defence angle. None of the islands in the Marmagoa bay are patrolled either by the marine police wing or the Indian Navy.
Oil pollution in the Arabian sea (called north Indian ocean) is well-documented by the oceanographers. Dr Sengupta and the former director of NIO, Dr S Z Quasim have catalogued the health of the Indian ocean (Chapter 8, The Indian Ocean, volume 1, Oxford and IBH, 2001).
Any interested government officer could easily understand this article if a long-term disaster mitigation plan is to be drawn. Fortunately, the weather and sea conditions were favourable to disperse the oil slick. The Indian coast guard were prompt and efficient in controlling the spill.
Even in June 1993 when the oil carrying vessel, Sea Transporter drifted close to Sinquerim beach, the Indian Coast Guard had pumped out hundreds of tonnes of thick, viscous furnace oil despite heavy monsoon showers. The entire North Goa tourism industry had held its breath till the operation was completed. But no lessons were learnt from this disaster. Then another vessel, River Princess appeared on the horizon and became a legend of sorts.
The ministry of environment and forests, government of India had issued clear guidelines in 1989 on how to deal with oil pollution. Section 8 deals with routine monitoring of petroleum hydrocarbon inputs entering into harbours. Sub-section 8.3 asks for contingency plan for major oil spillage at sea. Sub-section 8.5 suggests a co-ordination authority for pollution abatement in case of oil spillage. Section 10 deals with accidents. If the state government were to have the previous record of accidents, collisions on the sea then contingency plan could have been put in action. The Maritime Wisdom oil spillage case would not be the last such case.
The probability of a major oil spill near the coast of Goa is very high because of the heavy supertanker traffic close to the coast. So far, no major tanker disaster has been reported. About 35 per cent of global marine transport of oil from the Middle East takes place along the Arabian sea tanker routes. It is wishful thinking to believe that there will not be any accident and any marine or coastal pollution when annually, oil cargo of one billion metric tonnes is transported within just a few kilometres from the coastline of Goa.
The entry of oil in the Arabian sea from operational discharges has been about a million tone annually. This results in an estimated formation of 3700 tonnes of tar balls, annually. Due to currents, these are deposited on the beaches during the monsoon. How frequently have oil slicks been sighted close to Goa? The Japan oceanographic centre has reported that during 1975-80, on 495 out of 611 occasions, oil slicks were sighted in a sample quadrat close to Goa. This is highest frequency of oil slicks in the Indian Ocean. It is higher than even the transects surrounding Sri Lanka which is close to the supertanker lanes.
What has the state government done in this regard if it aims to protect the economic interests of the tourism and fisheries industry? Who monitors the bilge, bunker and ballast washings on the high seas? Nature took care of the recent oil spill. Dr Sengupta and Dr Quasim have explained this process: "In the warm areas, lighter fractions of the oil comprising around 40 per cent will evaporate within 24 hours after a spill. Photo oxidation by solar UV radiation will account for a maximum of 1 per cent per day of the total volume spilled. Heavier fractions will be broken down by oil degrading bacteria, naturally occurring in sea water.
A part of the oil will be oxidised slowly by the dissolved oxygen. Barely one
per cent of oil spilled may get dissolved or dispersed in the water. In warm
tropical waters one can presume that roughly half the spilled oil will disappear
during the first 24 hours after an oil spill."
After this, the process of formation of tar balls begins. These tar balls may float on the sea's surface for three to four months. Some of these sink to the ocean bottom and the rest would be deposited on the beaches. Studies have shown that tar ball deposition on Indian beaches range from 22 to 448 grams per square metre. The organic compounds in these tar balls are toxic and carcinogenic.
All the beaches of Goa have been reporting large amounts of tar ball deposition. The tourism department would have to activate its beach maintenance machinery to promptly detect, collect and destroy these deposits.
The lessons from the oil spill are clear. Goa needs a high-powered, representative special marine pollution management task force for protecting the future of coastal tourism and fisheries industry. It needs to create worst case scenarios and simulations and test its preparedness to mitigate and manage disasters such as the oil spills.
The government could consult senior (now retired) chemical oceanographers like Dr Rabin Sengupta to prepare a 'marine environmental threat perception and mitigation' report which could lead to the state's effective and rapid response to any future threat from the sea. ----------------------------------------------------- THE NAVHIND TIMES 28/03/05 page 8 ----------------------------------------------------- ======================================= GOA DESC RESOURCE CENTRE Documentation + Education + Solidarity 11 Liberty Apts., Feira Alta, Mapusa, Goa 403 507 Tel: 2252660 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] website: www.goadesc.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Working On Issues Of Development & Democracy =======================================
