VASCO: The National Fishworkers’ Forum (NFF) General Secretary, Olencio Simoes, slammed the State administration and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) for the failure of controlling tarball menace in the State of Goa.
In a press release the NFF general secretary said that the tarball phenomenon is a yearly affair and now almost every month tarballs gets washed away to the shores.
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“On one side the central and the State government is proposing the Sagarmala project in every coastal State but on the other it does not have the mechanism to impound the ships which release sludge into the ocean,” said the release.
Further, this tarballs can attract various heavy metals, including nickel, copper, and cobalt, to their surfaces. Due to different weathering processes, tarballs can accumulate high concentrations of heavy hydrocarbons, organic compounds that only contain carbon and hydrogen, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). PAHs are common in coal and tar deposits, and this also causes cancer in humans besides complete destruction of marine life and loss to the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen, the release said further.
Xencor Polgi, Executive Member of Goencho Ekvott, said that “Mormugao Port Trust and Indian Coast Guard have failed to control the ships which enter port as it is the same ships which release the sludge into the ocean. The consequences are disastrous when MPT will bring 136 MMTPA in Goa as the frequency of ships will increase multifold and Goa which is known for its silver sandy beaches will lose its essence completely.”
He demanded that the State administration should immediately remove all the tarballs and find a mechanism to control them.
