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Lebanese Waters Still Stained Black |
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By Meena S. Janardhan - IPS/IFEJ*
Four
months after the oil spill caused by Israeli bombing, Lebanon continues
to struggle to clean up its coastline. Thousands of marine species
are in danger and the coming winter brings a new urgency to the
problem.
DUBAI, Nov 20 (IPS/IFEJ) - Squally winter weather
in the eastern Mediterranean poses a fresh threat to marine ecology
from Lebanon to Turkey this year, due to the remnants of the oil
slick caused in July when Israeli forces bombed a power plant south
of Beirut.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 tons of crude leaked from the crippled
power plant of Jiyeh, 30 km from the Lebanese capital Jul. 13-15.
The spill seriously contaminated the waters along the Lebanese and
Syrian coast, and environmental damage to neighboring Cyprus, Greece
and Turkey was somewhat reduced by operations to mop up the floating
oil.
But the danger persists. Highly specialised teams with extensive
experience need to immediately get down to work cleaning rocks and
buildings before winter storms lash the region, warns the Malta-based
Regional Marine Emergency Response Centre for the Mediterranean
Sea (REMPEC).
Endangered marine species are feeling the effects of the oil spill,
and now that the migratory season has begun, scientists fear for
the fate of thousands of birds at sites like Lebanon's Palm Islands
Nature Reserve.
The spill from the Jiyeh plant was the result of Israel's 33-day
bombing campaign against Lebanon after militias from the pro-Syrian
Shiite group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. After the
Aug. 14 ceasefire, Lebanese officials calculated that the conflict
had claimed the lives of at least 1,100 civilians.
It wasn't until Oct. 13 that manual recovery of sunken oil with
specialised equipment began, from around the power plant. A team
of Italian divers has estimated that up to 600 cubic meters of oil
could be found on the seabed. Assisting them is an unidentified
non-governmental organization.
There are also divers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) waiting
to help with the clean-up. With experience gained most recently
from relief work in Thailand and Sri Lanka following the Dec. 26,
2004 tsunami, the team from the Emirates Diving Association is awaiting
the green light from the Lebanese authorities.
"We are ready to go and help assess the extent of damage below the
surface. I know that expert teams are already at the sites," Ibrahim
Al-Zubi, director of the association's environmental department,
said in an interview.
Following the day and night bombings in July by Israeli jets, a
mission set up by the Lebanese Ministry of Environment and experts
from the World Conservation Union (IUCN) found the beaches, caves
and rocks covered with oil. The shoreline, famous as a playground
for West Asia's rich, is home to the rare loggerhead turtle (Caretta
caretta) and monk seal (Monachus monachus).
"People who live off the sea will remember this pollution all their
lives. It will stain their memory forever," said Xavier Kremer,
a French oil-spill expert with the non-governmental organization
CEDRE, which specializes in investigating water pollution.
Describing the spill as Lebanon's worst-ever environmental disaster,
Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf told the press "clean-up costs
could reach 100 million dollars."
"Even species living at the bottom of the sea have not escaped contamination,
and innovative techniques must be developed to remove oil," said
Rick Steiner, an oil expert and member of the IUCN commission on
environmental and economic social policy.
Preliminary shoreline examinations have found toxic substances such
as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). "PAHs provoke cancer,
can accumulate in the species' organs and cause long-term impacts
such as the sudden collapse of fish populations years after contamination,
as was the case in Alaska," he explained, referring to his experience
from the 1989 Exxon-Valdez spill involving 37,000 tons of oil.
On Aug. 17, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the
United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) met in Athens and agreed
on a 65-million-dollar action plan to assist Lebanese authorities
with the clean-up. Other countries like Algeria, Cyprus, Greece,
France, Italy, Malta, Spain, and Syria, also pledged support.
The Lebanon Council for Development and Reconstruction puts the
direct costs of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict damage to infrastructure
at 3.6 billion dollars, though some analysts say the figure could
triple.
Several sandy beaches that are known nesting sites for two sea turtle
species, loggerhead and green (Chelonia mydas) turtles, have been
affected, especially in Beirut and the Palm Islands Nature Reserve,
outside the northwestern Lebanese city of Tripoli. The oil covering
the reserve's rocky coasts has already killed algae and other organisms
that fish and turtles feed on.
Mona Khalil, who has been monitoring turtles in Lebanon for some
six years, said in an interview that "most probably the newly hatched
baby turtles that enter the water near Palm Islands will die as
they will encounter oil when they come up for air."
"Hatchlings may also be exposed to residual oil on beaches as well
as in offshore waters. Such exposure could result in acute mortality
and/or sub-lethal effects including carcinogenesis, physiological
and reproductive impairment," said Steiner.
Ornithologist and Palm Islands manager Ghassan Jaradi, who has seen
oil-doused birds, is concerned about more such cases emerging as
the season for coastal bird migration has just begun. Around 156
species of birds, including many migratory birds, may already have
had direct contact with the contaminated water.
The rare monk seals, which have been spotted in the reserve's waters,
could also be affected. They are listed on the IUCN Red List of
Threatened Species.
"Palm Islands, which is one of Lebanon's most important staging
areas for migrant birds and is protected under the RAMSAR Convention
on Wetlands, is a micro-sample representing the overall situation
of the country's marine environment," said Ghassan.
The 1971 Ramsar Convention, named for the Iranian city where it
was signed, calls for preserving essential wetland ecosystems as
sources of water and biodiversity.
The IUCN mission has already helped start clean-up operations and
biodiversity monitoring. But CEDRE's Kremer has warned: "After cleaning
most of the oil, there will still be around one percent left on
the waters. People will have the impression the beaches are still
polluted."
* This story is part of a series of features
on sustainable development by IPS (Inter Press Service) and IFEJ
(International Federation of Environmental Journalists). |
