(UTV | COLOMBO) – The Chairman of the Centre for Environmental Justice’s (CFEJ), Ravindranath Dabare, and specialists in environmental sciences and marine biologists, stated that there is clear evidence that the owner of the chemical container ship “M-VX Press Peal ship” that burned off the capital Colombo recently, as well as its Captain and other relevant Officials having deliberately neglected or failed to inform the relevant authority in Sri Lanka of the possibility of a toxic chemical being released when it entered the maritime boundary lines, which pushed them to file a case, demanding large financial compensation for the potential environmental disaster, which proved the leakage of a large number of toxic substances into the water, adding that the damage to the marine environment and the South-Western coastline is very worrying and the state cannot deal with this environmental disaster.
For her part, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer-Hamdy said in a statement late on Saturday, “An environmental emergency of this nature causes significant damage to the planet by the release of hazardous substances into the ecosystem,” and “This, in turn, threatens lives and livelihoods of the population in the coastal areas.”
She also noted that the United Nations is coordinating international efforts and assisting Sri Lanka in assessing damage and recovery efforts and preventing such disasters from occurring in the future.
Source: A24 News Agency
