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OIL SPILL in SUNDARBANS

Shipping ministry's no to permanent halt

Vessel Movement Thru' Shela River

Staff Correspondent
Rejecting the environment ministry's repeated pleas, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan yesterday said the government was not considering imposing a permanent ban on plying of commercial vessels through the Shela river in the Sundarbans.
"We are not thinking of a permanent ban at the moment," he told a press conference after an inter-ministerial meeting at his office.
The issue has become a matter of grave concern after an oil tanker carrying 3.58 lakh litres of furnace oil capsized in the river on December 9.
All but some 1.25 lakh litres of the oil spread over 50 to 60km stretch of the Shela
and Pashur rivers, threatening to destroy the biodiversity and the ecosystem of the world's largest mangrove forest, officials said yesterday.
The environment ministry in a preliminary estimate said the disaster would cause a damage of Tk 100 crore, but the final estimate would be done after a detailed assessment.
A temporary ban on plying vessels through the Shela river is on and it will be in place until a further notice, but environmentalists have been demanding a permanentban.
Abdullah Al Islam Jacob, deputy minister for environment and forest, said they wrote to the shipping ministry several times seekinga permanent ban.
"A permanent ban on plying vessels through the route is imperative [to save the Sundarbans]," he told reporters followinga meeting at the environment ministry just two hours before the shipping minister's press conference.
Asked, Shajahan Khan said, "It is neither a failure nor it is indifference of the shipping ministry. It is a cruel reality | that vessels take that route |."
According to him, the government allowed vessels to take the route as the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel lost navigability and had been closed since 2004.
The government has started dredging the 31km channel that has been heavily silted. The siltation was caused by the construction of 13 polders surrounding the river, he added.
So far, six kilometres of the channel have been dredged, and the rest will be
done as quickly as possible, he said without giving any timeframe.
Now that the Shela route is closed, vessels need to ply an additional 100km or so to reach Mongla Port, which is causing a backlog of vessels at the Chittagong Port.
The Shela river route is also under the Bangladesh-India goods carrying protocol, the minister said. The number of vessels using the route has increased since 2012 when the protocol was revived.
Asked about the government priorities, Shajahan said, "It is the need of the people"
When a reporter pointed out that the government was failing to dredge the Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel because of some landlords who occupy vast parts of the channel, the minister agreed first and then quickly added the government had overcome it.
"Otherwise we could not dredge the 6km we so far have."
Meanwhile the government decided
to continue the clean-up manually. On Saturday, the forest department started the clean-up deploying 120 boats and 200 workers.
Abdullah Al Islam Jacob said the number of boats would be increased to 500to complete the job at the earliest
Also, a committee comprising environmentalists, water experts, botanists and officials will be formed to design a roadmap to protect the Sundarbans from any disaster.
The disaster management ministry will allocate relief to the people around the Shela river so that those depending on the aquatic resources for their living are not affected.
The health ministry will provide medical care to the people there, while the fisheries ministry would intervene to protect the fish in the river, Jacob said.
An inter-ministerial committee, headed by Prime Minister's Office Senior Secretary Abul Kalam Azad, will coordinate all these.