We are just weeks away, a little over a fortnight at best, from the monsoon. And as we head towards this season, there looms the spectre of a disaster at Vasco Bay in the form of floating dry dock that has got grounded just metres away from the cruise liner MV QING that has been grounded for three years already and has 350 tonnes of oil sloshing about within. The dry dock could have around 100 litres of diesel in a generator. High speed winds and rains could spell an environment disaster for all of Goa if the dry dock and grounded vessel crack.
It appears that the Goa government and administration has not learnt the lessons from the grounded River Princess. On June 5, 2000, the River Princess had run aground off Candolim beach. It remained there for 12 years before it was finally cut and the metal sold as scrap. But before that oil leaked out of the ship, people protested, attempts were made to refloat it, but the ship just sank further into the sand, until the only option was cutting it at the spot, and the government paid Rs 99 crore for this, minus the sale of scrap, out of the tax payers’ money. The River Princess saga played out for 12 years; are we staring at another long saga, this time of a MV QING?
MV QING has been anchored at the Western India Shipyard Limited for the last three years. During the last monsoon, on June 29 it started tilting precariously after water entered into it following incessant rains. The chances of it being able to withstand another monsoon, when a dry dock near it has begun sinking is anybody’s guess. And while any disaster to the ship threatens not just the immediate area of Vasco Bay, but all of the Goan coastline, the authorities appear to be blind to the environmental time bomb that is ticking loudly.
The authorities are aware of it. The Chairman of the Mormugao Port Trust has admitted that the submerged vessel has 30 times more water than oil that has now got mixed and the cost of removing it and then scientifically disposing this is high. He said too that the Goa State Pollution Control Board and others have been advised to take necessary steps. He has now assured that salvage operations of the ship and dry dock will be taken up, but only after the monsoon.
The possibility of an oil spill cannot be ruled out. An oil spill from the vessel that is holding 350 tonnes of oil and the dry dock that could have 100 litres of diesel, could cause the biggest disaster to Goa, affecting people, marine life and damaging the environment for years. Even before the ship can be moved out of the area, the oil it is holding has to be pumped out, now, before the monsoon sets in. What is needed now is a master plan to check an environment disaster. Though MPT has brought in equipment to prevent a marine environmental disaster due to a possible oil spillage, there is no clarity of whether what is being done is enough to control an oil spill.
The politicians, including the local politicians of Vasco, now waking up to the possibility of a disaster is an example of how the political class, the government and the administration, reacts only in the face of disaster. When the MV QING began sinking last year, there were efforts made to stop it from tilting by the South Goa Disaster Management Authority, but these were not taken to a conclusion. The ship remained there another year, and now days away from the monsoon and the possibility of a disaster, there is renewed interest. But it could be too late. MV QING may not wait for the authorities to empty it of its oil, before it opens it bowels to let its oil out. That is the disaster that needs to be avoided in the little time of fair weather that still remains.
