UN says Singapore ship that sank off Sri Lanka caused ‘significant damage’ to ecosystem

Name: Oil spill feared from sinking chemical cargo ship off Sri Lanka after two-week blaze aboard vessel
Uploaded: 2021-06-20T12:05:15.000Z
Duration: 2 min 22 s
Description: Oil spill feared from sinking chemical cargo ship off Sri Lanka after two-week blaze aboard vessel

The Singapore-flagged X-Press Pearl caught fire on May 20 and sank on Thursday

The United Nations is helping Sri Lanka in assessing the damage, recovery efforts and preventing such disasters in the future

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Members of the Sri Lankan Navy work to remove debris washed ashore from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl, which sank after burning for almost three weeks in the sea off Colombo Harbour. Photo: AFP

Associated Press

Published: 8:05pm, 20 Jun 2021

The UN representative in Sri Lanka said the sinking of a container ship that caught fire while transporting chemicals off the capital Colombo caused “significant damage to the planet” by releasing hazardous substances into the ecosystem.

The Singapore-flagged X-Press Pearl sank on Thursday, a month after catching fire, raising concerns about a possible environmental disaster.

The UN said it was coordinating international efforts and helping Sri Lanka in assessing the damage, recovery efforts and preventing such disasters in the future.

UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer-Hamdy said an environmental emergency of this nature “threatens lives and livelihoods of the population in the coastal areas”.

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Oil spill feared from sinking chemical cargo ship off Sri Lanka after two-week blaze aboard vessel

A UN team of oil spill and chemical experts – provided by the European Union – has been sent to Sri Lanka.