ECONOMYNEXT – Australia’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka David Holly has expressed his government’s willingness to help Sri Lanka develop a national maritime disaster preparedness mechanism in the wake of the X-Press Pearl disaster, the biggest maritime disaster in the island nation’s history.
A Sri Lanka foreign ministry statement on Friday (18) said quoting Holly that, though Australia’s approach to maritime disaster preparedness may not be the best fit for Indian ocean island, the Australian government is ready to assist Sri Lanka in building capacity to develop a suitable system, potentially with a systems engineering approach.
Holly had told a multi-stakeholder meeting on the matter that a maritime disaster management entity or a Maritime Safety Authority in Sri Lanka could serve not only to address disasters in Sri Lankan waters and Sri Lanka’s Search and Rescue region, but to act as a regional centre to complement other such entities in the Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, an Australian law firm named Spark Helmore is advising the government of Sri Lanka on environmental damage claims for the X-Press Pearl disaster, even as a Chinese salvage company is removing debris from the wreckage in the seas off Colombo.
Related: Sri Lanka to complete MV X-Press Pearl tanker debris clearance in four months
On May 20, 2021, Singapore flagged container vessel MV X-Press Pearl, anchored off Colombo port, caught fire, leading to what became the worst marine environment disaster in the island nation’s history, as estimated by Greenpeace among others. The tanker was carrying hundres of tonnes of chemicals and plastic nurdles on board. The fire lasted several days and partially burnt debris and tonnes of nurdles had turned up on Sri Lanka’s shores along with dead animals.
According to the foreign ministry statement, the discussion was carried out to learn from the Australian experience on managing maritime disasters.
Speaking at the meeting, acting Foreign Ministry Additional Secretary, Ocean Affairs, Environment & Climate Change, Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake had said that, if there were to be any upside to the X-Press Pearl disaster, it would be by serving as a catalyst for building a more resilient system to prevent and respond to maritime disasters in the future.
“This means prioritising maritime emergency preparedness and management through development of a maritime disaster preparedness plan, strengthening the institutional basis for its implementation with adequate capacity building for the staff of relevant agencies,” the statement quoted Dissanayake as saying.
High Commissioner Holly had said a collective initiative by the government of Sri Lanka and its international friends and partners was needed in order to achieve this. To ensure that support is delivered efficiently, he had said, a mechanism needs to be setup for accepting and facilitating international assistance to avoid overlaps and that key gaps are left unaddressed.
Australian High Commission Defence Adviser Capt. Ian Cain had told the meeting that a systems engineering approach would ensure that Sri Lanka focused on ‘needs’ rather than ‘wants’, which would assist the country in developing a system based on its current capacity and resources.
The foreign ministry said it developed an initial working draft for a Maritime Disaster Preparedness Mechanism for Sri Lanka in September 2021, and has handed over the process to the Ministry of Ports and Shipping, which heads the committee established to develop the mechanism.
“The committee is currently in the process of fine-tuning the mechanism together with the relevant stakeholders. The foreign ministry is also working with stakeholders to bring the issue of marine pollution and immediate recovery to global level, particularly caused by plastic nurdles,” it said. (Colombo/Feb19/2022)