It is a fact that 2020 was a year of calamity for all people around the world. Therefore among the gravest calamities held in this year, Muralee Thummarukudy has ranked covid 19 as numero uno. In his Facebook post, he called 2020 as a year of calamity. He also explains about other unfortunate events that have shooked the world amid covid 19 pandemic. Among them when he talks about the oil spill in Mauritius, he says that Kerala is also on the verge of a similar calamity. He talks about the reasons for such a calamity to occur and the precautions to be taken to escape to avert it.
His Facebook post is as follows:
2020: A year of calamity
In the past five years, every year I used to write an article about the important calamities held in that year. Along with learning new lessons from the calamities held every year, it also involves remembering the greatest calamity held in near-human history that is the Tsunami which lashed Indian shores on 2004 December 6.
But this year is different. This time the common occurrence, when certain calamities occur, has changed. The year itself has become a calamity. Even though the pandemic started in 2019, the name covid 19 and its dangerous form came into being in 2020. With the year nearing towards its end, the virus has attacked over eight crore worldwide and 18 lakh succumbed before the pandemic. Anyway, the virus is still unleashing its violent phase and it continues unabated. The second phase of the virus is ongoing in America and Europe.
Even though vaccines have been discovered against the virus towards the end of December, the pandemic is still claiming lives. Thousands are dying every day. Lakhs are losing their jobs. Education of millions of children is disrupted by the pandemic. Even after the world was marred by Covid 19, there was no dearth for other calamities. As Kerala had many lessons to learn from them, let’s take a quick look at what 2020 have given us…
Oil spill in Mauritius
The first calamity apart from Corona held on July 25 2020, when a shipping vessel called M V Vakashiyo was destroyed as it collided with the spread across the coast and Indian ocean region around Mauritius. The ship got cut into two halves due to the impact of the collision and its upper deck was abandoned in the sea. Tourism and fishing are the two major sources on income for Mauritius. The country’s tourism sector was ruined by Covid 19. The lagoons in Mauritius, which is a major tourist attraction in the country might lose its sheen due to the oil spill. Combined with this, it also disrupted the fishing industry in the region as fishing boats and the locals couldn’t venture into the sea. As it was the covid 19 period, they also didn’t get any external help to get out of the financial burden of the calamity.
For the last 10 years, I have been repeatedly saying about the possibility of a similar oil spill on the Kerala coast. The Kochi port, presence of large shipping vessels which comes to the Kochi Refinery with crude oil, the oil used by shipping vessels in small scale ports, the long line of ships which touches Kerala coast on its trip between the gulf and South Asia makes Kerala an ample destination for an oil spill.
If such an oil spill happens in the Kerala coast it will pose a severe threat to the marine resources in the state. Kerala’s tourism sector will be the first victim. Our fishing Industry could get halted for months, maybe for years.
We should be prepared to tackle such a crisis at multiple levels. In the coastal region, the oil spill should be controlled by the Indian coast guard. For that, they have a National Spill Disaster Contingency Plan. Refineries and ports may also have their plans. The pollution control board and the Kerala disaster management authority have their own plans to tackle that crisis.
Kerala will face three types of challenges in the wake of an oil spill. Firstly, if a large oil spill has to be catered, then technical help from many countries are needed. Singapore, Bahrain and South Ampton have a large collection of equipment which could be used to tackle an oil spill. An MoU must be signed with these countries.
Secondly, special training must be given to the fishermen to save their boats and nets from the oil spill. As the oil spill will disrupt fishing for months, fishermen should be given proper training in disaster relief operations so that they can take part in the operations which could reduce the impact of the oil spill in the coastal areas.
Thirdly and most importantly is the fund creation to meet the expense of an oil spill. At least it would cost around Rs 1,000 crore in the relief measures including a compensation package for the victims. There are international facilities available for collecting funds. But before that, an efficient system should be put in place to take the estimate of the environmental and financial damages caused by the oil spill.
Beirut blast
There occurred a large scale explosion of severe magnitude in 2020 August 4 in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. The accident happened when the 3,000 tonnes worth of ammonium nitrate which was stocked inside the underground warehouse in the port got exploded. It is still unknown how the ammonium nitrate got exploded. More than 200 people died in the incident. 6,500 persons were injured. Homes of three lakh people became uninhabitable. The loss was around three lakh crore rupees.We have ports and it has godowns. We also have factories and it has godowns, which may have stored many explosive substances like Ammonium Nitrate. On the lessons to be learnt from Beirut blast we should convene a summit of posts and chemical industrial houses. It should be examined whether there are possibilities for a similar event and the mitigation measures to be taken to avert it.
Atlantic cyclones
Atlantic cyclones occur in the months between June to November. It was the most active period for cyclones in the near past. Including the Lotta cyclone, which grew up into category five, there occurred 13 cyclones in the Atlantic region. Honduras which witnessed three cyclones intermittently was completely destroyed. During the period of cyclones, a cumulative loss of three lakh crore rupees from different countries have been reported.
Already it was predicted that climate change will increase the strength and number of cyclones in our planet. Post Ockhi, the possibility for cyclonic storms are higher in Kerala coast. Even though the Burevi cyclone has not attained many magnitudes as expected, we should be prepared for the worst as more cyclones could hit the Kerala coast in the near future. We should change our existing patterns and conventions on land use, construction in coastal areas and people’s awareness about cyclones.
The year 2020 ends with a mix of good and bad news. When the world is happy over covid 19 vaccines hitting the markets, the world is also concerned over the strain of the pandemic. Even though it is still unclear whether the new vaccine will prevent the new virus strain, the year ends on the wider expectation that finally man and science will triumph over the virus
Be safe…
Muralee Thummarukudy
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