Mauritius, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, wants the owner of an attacked Japanese ship that spilled 1,000 tons of oil into the sea to pay for it.
Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth’s statement comes as efforts were made on Thursday to turn the remaining 500 tonnes of oil at the MV Wakashio, which ran aground on July 25 and is increasingly in danger of splitting in two.
“It is essential that the ship be emptied before it breaks,” Jean Hugue Gardenne of the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation told the Associated Press. “A lot of oil has been pumped out in recent days, but we can not let it go. There is already so much damage. ”
This photo provided by the French Army shows oil leaking on Tuesday from the MV Wakashio, a bulk carrier that sailed along the southeast coast of Mauritius (EMAE / AP)
MAURITIUS OIL DISASTER: RACE TO DRAIN STICKEN SHIP BEFORE SPLIT HALF
An estimated 2,500 tons of fuel has already been removed from the ship, stranded on a coral reef at Pointe d’Esny, a sanctuary for rare game. But the oil it spilled has slowed the country’s coastline and protected wetland area, with Jugnauth declaring a national disaster.
Jugnauth says Mauritius will seek compensation from Nagashiki Shipping – the ship’s owner – but its monetary value is unclear.
The Jugnauth government is also under pressure to explain why it did not take immediate action to empty the ship when it ran aground. Two weeks later, after being hit by waves, the ship crashed and began to leak.
Environmentalists warned Monday that it could fall apart “at any moment.”
Volunteers take part in the cleaning operation in Mahebourg, Mauritius on Wednesday. (AP)
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As a result of the shortage, some of the turquoise waters around Mauritius – an island nation off the coast of Africa – were stained with muddy black, drying waterfowl and reptiles with sticky oil.
Thousands of Mauritians have been working for days to reduce the damage by making improvised barriers of dust and stuffing them with straw and sugar leaves to contain the spread of the oil. Others have extracted oil from the shallow waters. It is estimated that nearly 400 of the 1,000 tonnes spilled were removed from the sea.
France sent a navy ship, military aircraft and technical advisers from the nearby island of Reunion after Mauritius asked for help last week. Japanese experts have arrived on the island and support the effort. The United Nations is sending experts.
Thousands of students, environmentalists and residents of Mauritius are working around the clock to try to reduce the damage to the island of the Indian Ocean by the oil spill. (EMAE / AP)
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The Wildlife Foundation is alarmed that the oil spill is the work it has been doing since 1985 to improve the area where the ship ran aground, Gardenne said.
“We have planted about 200,000 native trees to restore the coastal forest,” he told the Associated Press. We have reintroduced endangered birds, including the pink dove, the white eye of the olives and the critically endangered Mauritius fody on the Isle aux Aigrettes. Now all this is threatened because the oil is drowning in the bottom and the coral reefs. “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
