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X-Press Pearl claims not yet completed one year on

31 May 2022

  • Charge sheet in criminal case being finalised
  • Monetary claim for environmental harm to be submitted soon
BY Pamodi Waravita The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) said that the charge sheet in the criminal litigation case concerning the MV X-Press Pearl incident, which occurred just over one year ago, is still being finalised by the Attorney General’s (AG) Department, while a monetary claim for the environmental harm that was caused will be made soon.  Speaking to The Morning yesterday (30), MEPA Chairperson Dharshani Lahandapura explained that there are two litigation cases that can be filed by MEPA; one being the civil case which covers the environmental damage, and the other, a criminal case.  “We have given reports to the Australian legal experts about the environmental damage that we assessed. They will inform us about future steps that need to be taken with regard to the civil case. We can also file a criminal case, and in this regard, the AG’s Department is still finalising the relevant charge sheet,” she said.  Last year, the Government sought the expertise of an Australian legal team to assess and finalise the environmental damage as a result of the disaster. When questioned about allegations directed at the MEPA for not expediting the process of obtaining compensation for the environmental damage caused, Lahandapura said that the legal team had informed her that “one year is not a long time in an environmental damage case, as continuous monitoring is carried out to understand the long term effects of the harm that was caused”.  “However, I believe that they will try to file the claim as soon as possible,” she added.  In what is termed the country’s largest marine environment disaster, the MV X-Press Pearl ship caught fire on 20 May 2021, approximately nine nautical miles away from the Colombo Harbour. A subsequent explosion on 24 May 2021, led to the fire spreading and a number of containers aboard it falling into the sea, thus releasing pollutants including plastic pellets into the water. A report of the United Nations Environmental Advisory Mission, published in July 2021, termed the plastic spill as the “largest on record”.  “Compensation from the disaster can be claimed according to four areas – economic harm, property damage, long-term studying and monitoring, and conservation. For the economic harm that was caused, we have obtained compensation of $ 7.8 million so far, and this includes the cost incurred by the fisheries industry, the cleanup operations, and small property damages. The cost of the environmental damage falls under long-term monitoring and conservation, and we believe that this cost will be huge. That is what we are working towards, as we have still not received that compensation. We have to be very thorough with our proof and we are working on it with Australian legal experts,” Lahandapura told The Morning yesterday. The cleanup operations following the disaster are still continuing, more than a year later, she noted.  “We are continuously cleaning. We didn’t stop cleaning, as the plastic level hasn’t reduced to a level where we can stop cleaning. We have done cleanup operations for more than 200 days now, involving the fisheries community and Civil Defence Force personnel. We have collected all of the waste in a warehouse, amounting to about 1,800 metric tonnes (MT),” said Lahandapura.  Meanwhile, the removal of the shipwreck began earlier this year by a salvage company based in Shanghai.  “The wreck removal is divided into two parts: the removal of the sunken containers and the removal of the wreck itself. A Shanghai-based salvage company is in charge of it. Since the monsoons started, it is halted for now. The basic preparations are all done, and once the monsoons stop this year, it will restart. There is a caretaker vessel there at the moment for around-the-clock monitoring. The cost of this is borne by the Protection and Indemnity Club – the insurers,” said Lahandapura.  She further said that animal samples, seawater samples, oil samples, sediment samples, and nurdles samples were sent to three laboratories; one in the UK, one in France, and the Indian branch of one based in Australia.  “The reports are being finalised at the moment,” she said.  


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