TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: With tar balls surfacing along many of Goa’s beaches with the onset of every monsoon, the Goa State Pollution Control Board has now released a comprehensive Goa State Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan (SOS-DCP) listing the procedures, actions and departments that would have a role to play in enforcing the plan.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar praised the two-part plan that is the first of its kind in the country.
“Washing of tanks and accidents at high seas, causes the washing off of oil and depending on sea currents, it is deposited on beaches. Each ship may discharge anything between 5 and 100 kgs of oil, making it difficult to catch the people involved in it, much like dumping of garbage,” Parrikar said, adding that the contingency plan was created owing to the huge amounts of tar ball deposits found on Goan beaches during the last monsoon.
The two-part plan lists duties and responsibilities of the concerned departments in the first part, while the role of oil storage companies such as ONGC, Captain of Ports, Zuari Indian Oil, Indian Oil, Ganesh Benzoplast, Hindustan Petroleum, MPT, Bharat Petroleum, Indian Mollasses and the Coast Guard is listed in the second part.
Speaking to media persons, GSPCB chairman Jose Manuel Noronha also gave directions in the event of an oil spill.
“In the event of washing up of tar balls or oil spills on Goa’s coastal belt, villagers should inform the GPSCB or NIO. We will collect samples and the Tourism Department without the use of any mechanized vessels will remove these tar balls. The agencies will do bioremediation of the balls,” said Noronha.
Besides the above listed agencies, the oil spill response team includes north and south Goa district collectors; departments of science, technology and environment; tourism; forests; fisheries; and water resources departments.
