Locals engage in oil mopping with pots and pans

Local fishermen and villagers have begun mopping up oil from a spill caused by the Sundarbans tanker mishap with pots, pans and sacks riding on engine-driven boats on Shela River.
State-owned institution Padma Oil Company Limited contractors are buying it from them at a rate of Tk 30 per litre.
Padma Oil's contractor Abdullah Traders owner Rafiqul Islam Babul said they had acquired 3,400 litres of oil in the first five hours.
The Sundarbans East Division Chandpai Range's Chandpai Station employee Abul Kalam Azad said, the oil mopping started from Friday morning under the supervision of the local administration and the forest division in accordance to an announcement made the previous day.
Assistant forest conservator Belayet Hossain said the mop-up is taking place from Jaimani to Andharmanik, a 15-km stretch along the Shela River.
He said, "Everybody stepped in spontaneously. Women and children from different families have come with pots and pans."
The entire exercise is being supervised by the forest division, BIWTA, coast guards, naval police, and the Mangla port authorities.
The forest keepers, with the help of fishermen, started sealing the entrances of canals with nets to stop the oil from spreading further.
'Southern Star 7', carrying 350,000 litres of furnace oil, sank Tuesday after being hit by another cargo vessel, MT Total.
The sunken tanker was recovered  Thursday, two days after the incident. But, by then, the oil had spilled across 34,000 hectares of the Sundarbans rivers and canals, said forest officials.
The spill could have catastrophic effects in the Sundarbans heritage. The environmental experts fear the incident may crucially hamper the diversity of life there, specially the Irrawaddy dolphins.
Authorities backpedalled on a decision to use chemicals (oil spill dispersant) to contain the oil due fears of endangering the ecology of the world's largest mangrove forest.
Tugboat Kandari 10 in-charge Abu Bakar Siddique said with clearance of Ministry of Environment and Forest it will start the spreading of oil spill dispersants to bring the pollution under control.
Tugboat Kandari-10 arrived at the scene from Chittagong with 10,000 litres of the chemical. The initial decision to release the material was suspended due objections by the forest division, according to a news agency.