Up to 1.1 million barrels of oil could spill into the Red Sea causing a disaster four times worse than the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989, the United Nations Security Council heard on Wednesday.
Time is running out to prevent a ruined oil tanker near Yemen from causing an “impending environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe,” warned the head of the United Nations Environment Program, Inger Andersen.
Yemeni-owned oil tanker FSO Safer began drinking water in May. If its oil spills, it could cause irreversible damage to the rich biodiversity of the Red Sea, including coral reefs and mangroves.
“Cleaning it up afterwards is not a viable option,” the US ambassador said. Kelly Craft.
The damage would also have serious economic consequences for at least 1.6 million Yemenis, said Mark Lowcock, UN chief of humanitarian affairs. “Essentially, all fishing communities along Yemen’s west coast would see their livelihoods collapse.”
Almost all of those communities at risk already require humanitarian aid due to the war that lasted for years in the poorest country in the Arab world, he added.
The conflict, which started in 2014, has seen Iranian-aligned Houthi Shiite rebels try to overthrow the internationally recognized government by taking control of the capital Sanaa. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been supporting the government in the fight against the rebels.
The ship was built in 1974 and has been regularly inspected by the UN, but is moored in territory controlled by the Houthi militia, which has blocked access.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned the militia for blocking the UN mission.
“The Houthis must grant access before the time bomb explodes,” he said during a briefing.
UN agencies have been alerting to the risk posed by the tanker for more than a year, Lowcock said on Wednesday.
Concerns increased in May when a leak emerged in the engine room, creating an explosion hazard. Lowcock said the leak was relatively small and divers were able to repair and contain it. However, “it is impossible to say how long it could last,” he added.
The UN has proposed a plan to repair the damage and allow oil on board to be salvaged and sold, providing income for local workers, according to the Yemeni government.
Yemen Foreign Minister Mohammed Al-Hadhrami told the Security Council that the government has accepted the UN plan, but said the Houthi militia was not cooperating.
Al-Hadhrami also warned that giving the Houthis access to the government-owned tanker “will not solve the problem, and will allow them once again to hijack the problem in the future, when the pressure rises.”
Lowcock said that while the Houthis rejected the UN mission, the Houthi militia announced last week that it had changed its position.
However, he cautioned that the permits were promised in August 2019 only to be canceled by the Houthis the night before the deployments.
Reuters contributed to this report
Abigail Williams contributed
