Oil clean-up drive thru\\\' locals gets poor response

The authorities have backpedalled on its decision to use chemicals to contain the oil that has spread over 34,000 hectares of area in Shela River in Sundrabans East Zone endangering ecology of the world’s largest mangrove forest. Now they have chalked out a plan and are reportedly going ahead with it to clean up the spilled furnace oil of ‘OT Southern Star 7’ by local people using foam and other oil-sucking materials. However, the move is likely to get poor response as the furnace oil collection has become difficult due to its continuous spread to the river and its surrounding water bodies in the Sundarbans. Oil tanker ‘Southern Star 7’, carrying 350,000 litres of the fuel oil, sank on Tuesday after being hit by a cargo vessel in Sheila River in Chandpai Range in Bagerhat district. Padma Oil has reportedly set up 2 purchasing centres under Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation's supervision to buy the furnace oil collected by the local people and fishermen. Sundarbans East Zone forest officer Amir Hossain Chowdhury said they were sealing off entries to canals with nets to prevent the oil from spreading further. Tugboat Kandari-10 has arrived at the scene from Chittagong with 10,000 litres of oil spill dispersant. But BIWTA chief Md Shamddoha Khandkar said they would try to collect the oil with the locals' help for the next three days. ‘We'll decide on using the chemical after that,’ he said. Rustam Khan, a resident of Mongla Upazila, said although the spilled oil is spreading to different canals and water bodies in the Sundarbans, some people collected the floating furnace oil in some areas. Santu Hawlader, a local fisherman, said he and four other people have collected 400 liters of floating oil from Mrigamari, Badamtola and Bottola areas adjacent to the Shela River. While talking to this correspondent, Mongla Port Chairman Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan said a massive turnout of local people is needed to make the oil clean-up drive a success and the media can play an important role in this regard. ‘We’ve been thinking about using trawlers in cleaning up the furnace oil. Raw jute, sacks and sponge will be attached with the trawler to remove the spilled oil from the water,’ he said, adding ‘We don’t want to use chemical and heavy vessels in cleaning up the spilled oil before confirming it that it will not have any bad impact on the forest and its biodiversity,’ according to a news agency.