Tackling Oil Spillage: Committee there, but only on paper

A high-powered national committee, formed to tackle oil or chemical spills along the shipping routes, has failed miserably to respond to the recent oil spill in the Meghna.

The failure laid bare the committee's sheer apathy and a lack of preparedness for such incidents.

The Meghna spill was the first since the committee was formed in 2020, and the biggest in the country so far.

The 24-member National Committee on Oil and Chemical Spillage (NOCS), led by the secretary of the environment, forest and climate change ministry, was supposed to act swiftly as per the National Contingency Plan in case of any oil or chemical spill.

However, the spill exposed that the NOCS is not even aware of the terms of references. Add to that, it had no coordination or preparation in tackling the marine accident, even two years into its formation, DoE sources said.

After the December 24 Meghna oil spill, the committee, according to its stated responsibilities, was supposed to hold emergency meetings, select on-scene commanders, alert relevant government agencies, mobilise resources to contain the spilled oil, provide technical support and engage environmental scientists to assess the damage.

But the committee met 10 long days after the country's biggest oil spill, in which an estimated 12 lakh litres seeped into the river.

Instead, the Bangladesh Coast Guard were the first responders to the disaster and conducted the entire operation to remove oil, and lift and tow away the vessel, after it came to know about the incident from its patrol team.

Officials of the Department of Environment, whose director general was made the committee's member-secretary, showed up at the site 24 hours after the incident.

The NOCS was formed 10 years after Bangladesh in 2010 signed a Memorandum of Understanding as part of a regional agreement among five countries -- India, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangaldesh.

The aim of the agreement is to ensure collective response in case of any major spill of hydrocarbon product being transported along shipping routes.

KM Shafiul Kinjal, coast guard officer and supervisor of the rescue and oil removal operation, told The Daily Star that once they were informed about the spill by their patrol team, they rushed to the spot with the necessary equipment on their own.

"We did not get any instruction from any other organisations in this regard."

Though the Coast Guard claims to have scooped up two lakh litres of oil, the SHR Navigation Company, which owns the oil tanker, tells a different story. 

Mahtabur Rahman, executive director (finance and admin) of the company, told The Daily Star that only 476.94 litres (three barrels) out of 12.38 lakh litres of oil could be recovered.

Most of the oil had deposited into the riverbed, he apprehended.

Asked whether they had an emergency action plan approved by the DoE for tackling such spills, he said he was not even aware that something like that exists.

Farhina Ahmed, secretary of the environment ministry and the central contact personnel of the NOCS, did not respond to calls or text messages for comments.

Speaking to The Daily Star, Sanjay Kumar Bhowmik, additional secretary (environment) of the ministry, claimed their works are ongoing.

Regarding the NOCS's actions, he said they held a meeting recently after the Meghna oil spill.

"Though they [the NOCS] are supposed to hold meetings once every fourth months, they could not do that. But we [the ministry] are providing secretarial service to the committee. In the meantime, we have formed a separate 20-member committee to assess the damages in the Meghna."

About the progress of the national contingency plan, which tasks the environment ministry with coordinating and mobilising resources, ensuring training and logistics, and establishing a dedicated cell to deal with such spills, he said these mechanisms could not be established yet.

"This will take time."

Md Maruf Hossain, professor of Institute of Marine Science and Fisheries in Chattogram University who drafted the final contingency plan, told The Daily Star that the key steps he suggested were omitted from the plan that the government gazetted.

"I suggested a Marine Pollution Control Authority, which neighbouring countries have established. We have many organisations but no action on the ground at all."

After the massive oil spill in the Shela river near the Sundarbans in 2014, the UNESCO made 10 recommendations, including the formation of a dedicated marine authority to better manage spill incidents and strengthening of the inland vessel management, vessel spacing and navigational restrictions in line with the international practice.

With 90 percent of the country's trade happening through the shipping routes, the coastal and marine areas of Bangladesh are always at a risk of marine accidents.

"We, however, seem to have no preparedness in that regard," Maruf observed.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, another vessel carrying 500 tonnes of fertiliser sank in the Mongla river. And once again, the NOCS has remained ignorant and inactive.