Mauritius Government Claims to Have Stopped Oil Spill- But is it Enough?

The Mauritian government have reportedly pumped out 3000 tonnes of the fuel from the MV Wakashio, as reported by the BBC, but is it enough to prevent the ecological disaster, or at least suggest that the government has done all it could?

The short answer is no. Even 1000 tonnes of fuel leaking into a near pristine ecological hot-spot (an area with outstanding biodiversity), such as the of the Blue Lagoon and surrounding national parks is going to have massively detrimental impact on the natural environment.

Furthermore, now that the ship has split apart further damage will be caused to what must already be a heavily damaged reef where the ship impacted. More fuel will leak into the surrounding area as a result and the hull of the ship will have likely caused further physical damage to the sea bed, as it split apart. It is vital the ship is somehow re-floated or relocated some other way, as metal contamination will be a further issue to deal with.

The government deserves some credit for being able to pump out and helicopter away, the vast majority of the fuel to another Japanese ship. But it has come too slowly, much is to be desired when it comes to their initial response and excuses such as bad weather and lack of resources frankly are not acceptable when other strategies could have been considered, or international help/guidance called for.

The ship crashed over almost a month ago and two weeks before it started leaking oil. I know the Mauritian government does not have vast resources in comparison to many parts of the world, but its easy to see that something should have been done sooner, or at least help called for as soon as the ship ran aground.

Most of the booms have been created by locals, who have shared many videos online. 1000’s of volunteers have been creating makeshift booms from straw and plastic bottles as well as hair in some cases to prevent their island nation being polluted by the spill. This should not be down to locals to do, but their work has been vital and has shown a great reduction in the fuel in the water.

Some more permanent booms have been placed around the vessel by the government, but the fact that fuel is still leaking past and having to be dealt with by locals, shows further failings. The government even asked that the cleanup be left to authorities! Thank goodness locals and NGOs had other ideas or the disaster would have been even more catastrophic.

The country relies heavily on tourism and with Covid-19, as well as this oil spill, their economy could be hugely hit with tourists choosing elsewhere until the spill is cleared up. As a result, it is in the best interest of the government to quickly resolve the issue.

An investigation clearly needs to be launched into how this situation has been dealt with, why the ship was so close to the reef and why the government did not act sooner to prevent ecological catastrophe.