Oil slick causes scare along Fujairah

Oil slick causes scare along Fujairah Salah Al Deberky (news@khaleejtimes.com) / 15 July 2013 The Environment Protection Department at the Fujairah Municipality is cleaning up the oil slick washed ashore which polluted the beaches of Mirbiah and Gadfa on Saturday. It appeared that the loading and unloading of a vessel off the Fujairah coast was behind the pollution. A heavy oil slick stretched nearly four kilometres along the two areas and a top official of the Fujairah Fishermen Association says it has gone even to a depth of one kilometre, making it a serious spill. A large portion of the slick, especially on the beaches, has been cleared. The Ministry of Environment and Water, on Sunday, sent specialised technicians to examine the pollution and clean up the beaches. The oil pollution brought fishing to  a halt, and eyewitnesses said the pollution resulted in the piling up of a thick layer of oil tars stretching over four kilometres from Gadfa area to the fishing harbour in Mirbiah amid fears that the slick would hit the major water desalination plant in Gadfa adversely and, consequently, the water supply in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. “The oil spill which hit Mirbiah and Gadfa shores is one of the serious ones due to the thickness of the layer, which spread largely on water and in depth of more than a kilometre,“ said Mohammed Al Yateem, Secretary-General of Fujairah Fishermen Association. “A patch of the oil tar which deposited on the beaches of the two neighbourhoods caused a foul odour that inconvenienced the people,” he said. This type of pollution was detrimental to environment, and posed a threat to fisheries, especially the fish on the surface and not in the deep, for the oil spill covered the water surface and was about 20 centimetres thick, he said, adding that it was one of the rare kinds of pollution in these areas in a long time. Meanwhile, Abdullah Al Hantoobi, Deputy Director of the Fujairah Municipality, said the oil slick hit sea water and beaches of both Gadfa and Mirbiah and reached as far as the Fujairah Seaport, adversely affecting the fish production. Al Hantoobi, however, said Fujairah water desalination and power stations 1 and 2 were not affected by the spill, and that was assured and confirmed by the management of the stations when contacted. Water supplied to the stations was from deep sea, which was free of oil slick, he said. Oil slicks were caused by dumping of waste by oil tankers into the sea and in the UAE territorial waters illegally. The municipality, in coordination with the Fujairah Seaport, had already started cleaning up the oil slick. The beaches were being cleaned using earth moving machines. Taylor Scott International