{"id":73139,"date":"2021-06-04T01:02:58","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T06:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73139"},"modified":"2021-06-04T02:10:02","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T07:10:02","slug":"sri-lankan-authorities-bracing-for-a-possible-oil-spill-as-fire-damaged-cargo-vessel-mv-x-press-pearl-carrying-chemicals-and-plastic-strts-sinking-off-the-islands-main-harbour-in-colom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73139","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan authorities  bracing for a possible oil spill as  fire-damaged cargo vessel &#8220;MV X-Press Pearl&#8221; carrying chemicals and plastic starts  sinking off the island\u2019s main Harbour in Colombo."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivsan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday said they were bracing for a possible oil spill, as a fire-damaged cargo vessel was sinking off the island\u2019s main port in capital Colombo.<\/p>\n<p>Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, carrying chemicals and plastic, has been in news since a fire incident on May 20 and subsequent explosion aboard, following which tonnes of plastic pellet deposits were found deposited along the country\u2019s beaches.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The country\u2019s Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), which termed the incident one of Sri Lanka\u2019s worst ecological disasters in history, has readied oil spill containment booms, to tackle a possible leak from the vessel that officials said carried 350 tonnes of oil in its fuel tanks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no oil leak from the ship yet, but arrangements are in place to deal with a possible spill. That is the worst-case scenario,\u201d Navy spokesperson Indika de Silva said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, several coastal villages reported dead fish and other marine organisms by the shore, images of which went viral on social media.<\/p>\n<p>The ship\u2019s crew was evacuated last week, while the fire was fully extinguished on Tuesday, by the Sri Lankan Navy, along with experts from a Dutch salvage company and the Indian Coast Guard, after a 13-day battle with the raging flames.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka police are investigating the incident.<\/p>\n<p><em>Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton73139\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D73139&amp;text=Sri%20Lankan%20authorities%20%20bracing%20for%20a%20possible%20oil%20spill%20as%20%20fire-damaged%20cargo%20vessel%20%26%238220%3BMV%20X-Press...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivsan Sri Lankan authorities on Thursday said they were bracing for a possible oil spill, as a fire-damaged cargo vessel was sinking off the island\u2019s main port in capital Colombo. Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl, carrying chemicals and plastic, has been in news since a fire incident on May 20 and subsequent explosion aboard, &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73139\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Sri Lankan authorities  bracing for a possible oil spill as  fire-damaged cargo vessel &#8220;MV X-Press Pearl&#8221; carrying chemicals and plastic starts  sinking off the island\u2019s main Harbour in Colombo.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73145,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73139\/revisions\/73145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}