2021-05-25
Emergency Obs. Request Information
- Disaster Type: Other (Oil spill)
- Country: Sri Lanka
- Occurrence Date (UTC): 25 May, 2021
- SA activation Date(UTC): 4 June, 2021
- Requester: Disaster Management Center – Sri Lanka
- Escalation to the International Charter: Yes
- GLIDE Number:
Disaster Situation
Sri Lankan authorities are preparing for an oil spill from a sunken container ship after efforts to tow the vessel into deeper waters failed. The Singapore-registered X-Press Pearl had been on fire for two weeks near the port of Colombo. Part of the hull has now settled on the seabed. Experts fear hundreds of tonnes of oil in the ship's tanks could devastate nearby marine life and beaches.
The X-Press Pearl had been carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid, along with other chemicals and cosmetics, when it caught fire on 20 May. Many of the ship's 1,486 containers tumbled into the sea before the huge blaze was put out earlier this week. Pollution from the ship - including millions of plastic pellets which are the raw material for shopping bags - has already coated stretches of Sri Lanka's western coastline.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57343139
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57343139 https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/6/3/sri-lanka-braces-for-almost-inevitable-oil-spill-as-ship-sinks
https://richierde.users.earthengine.app/view/xpress-pearl-ship-smoke
https://twitter.com/OceanswellOrg/status/1399378695819862022
Product
AIT
Web GIS
Oil spill emergency in Sri Lanka on 25 May, 2021 see detail
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The account will be sent to the EOR requester after Web GIS page is prepared.
If you are interested in to be a member of Sentinel Asia, please contact: z-sentinel.asia@ml.jaxa.jp
