Nearly 300 volunteers are toiling day and night collecting tonnes of oil that has collected on the beach to the North of Chennai, following a collision between two vessels at the Kamarajar Port nearby.

Drenched in sweat, hands and legs layered in thick, oily sludge, the group of fishermen, students and foreigners stand on the rocky beach collecting the oil washed ashore in buckets. They stand in rows on oil-soaked rocks as they pass sludge-filled buckets from hand-to-hand to empty the waste into plastic barrels.

Over 65 tonnes of pure oil sludge have been removed from the beach at Ernavoor, about 20 km north of Chennai.

The oil had spilled from one of the vessels involved in the collision at the Kamarajar Port last Saturday.

Difficult contingency

For the last three days, over 1,000 volunteers have been involved in combating one of the largest oil spills witnessed along Chennai’s shore. The sludge is so thick that machines jammed while sucking it up. Volunteers had to manually collect the oil using buckets.

“It is a very difficult task but we need to do this as our livelihood is affected,” said P Prakash, a fisherman, who along with 35 others from the region, is involved in the clean-up.

This spill in Chennai was far less than the 879 tonnes that flowed into the sea when ship Khalijia collided with MSC Chitra off the coast of Mumbai in 2010.

However, it has been a big learning for all stakeholders in dealing with such a contingency, said Commandant Pradeep B Mandal of the Indian Coast Guard, who is overseeing the clean-up operations at the Ernavoor beach. Nearly 75 per cent of oil sludge has been removed. With the same number of volunteers, in a couple of days, the beach will be clear. Subsequently, oil that’s spread on the rocks needs to be washed, he told BusinessLine .

Three Coast Guard ships with oil dispersants and helicopters are monitoring the sea to spot oil patches and take necessary measures. “Our job is at sea but we are coordinating with stakeholders, including local administration and port officials, in the clean-up,” he said.

Ongoing investigation

On January 28, BW Maple (Flag Isle Of Man) carrying LPG and Dawn Kanchipuram (Indian flag) carrying POL collided outside Kamarajar port’s harbour.

The oil spill from the port travelled over 20 km to reach Marina beach, with Ernavoor beach being the worst affected. Investigation on the ship collision is still going on.

Rajesh Deshwal, CEO, Darya Ship Solutions — which owns oil tanker Dawn Kanchipuram — told BusinessLine that , “everything is under investigation and I don’t want to make any comment that will distort the facts. It was an unfortunate incident that had happened.”

Sanjeev S Vakil, CEO, Hindustan Institute of Maritime Training, along with nearly 50 cadets from the institute involved in the clean-up, said it was a hands-on experience for students on contingency plan during oil spill.

Usually, students learn these inside the classroom.

“It was a great learning experience for them,” he said.

This is a corrective maintenance but how to prevent it is more important.

More precautions need to be taken when two ships are crossing each other, he said.

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