• With an international incident brewing following a Lanka-bound ship colliding with a historic US bridge, environmental scientists & politicians take the local/int’l authorities to task on shortcomings including the non-enforcement of laws governing the transport of hazardous waste   

The cargo ship that recently collided with a bridge in Baltimore, United States (US), causing the destruction of both the ship and the bridge, which was en route to Sri Lanka, is found to have contained hazardous waste material, of which the intended destination is yet to be known. 

The relevant authorities such as the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) have suggested that such material would not have been intended to be unloaded in Sri Lanka. Several parties however, terming such statements to be ‘irresponsible’, emphasise that the authorities should deal more responsibly with the ships that enter territorial waters.

On 26 March, the Singapore flagged ship Dali collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the Bridge to collapse and around six persons who were on the Bridge at the time of the accident to lose their lives. Following the incident, international media reported that the ship was carrying hazardous waste materials. Hazardous materials amounting to 764 metric tonnes (MT) aboard the ship are reported to have contained hazardous materials including corrosives, flammables, and lithium-ion batteries. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has initiated an investigation into the matter, and their preliminary report is slated to be released in two to four weeks.

Hazardous waste material can be termed as substances that can damage human health or the environment. This includes waste that contains heavy metals, toxic chemicals, infectious medical waste, electronics, plastics, and corrosive, flammable, explosive, or radioactive substances.

Speaking to The Daily Morning early this week, SLPA Chairperson Keith D. Bernard said that merely because the cargo ship was en route to Sri Lanka, it does not mean that the hazardous material that was said to be aboard the ship was intended for Sri Lanka. He claimed that most of the containers that were aboard the ship were to go to other destinations (countries) via Sri Lanka, and that the SLPA was not even aware of the contents of the containers at the time of the collision. Adding that generally, the SLPA is informed of the contents of an arriving ship only 72 hours in advance, Bernard explained that the said ship was to arrive in Sri Lanka’s ports on 21 April, 2024, and that therefore, they are not aware of its contents.

When contacted by The Daily Morning, environmental scientist Dr. Ajantha Perera charged that the relevant authorities including the SLPA, the Marine Environmental Protection Authority (MEPA), and the relevant local shipping agent, should not be allowed to get away with the issue by claiming that they are not aware of the content of the containers aboard the ship. 

“All these authorities are informed of what a particular ship is carrying from the date of its departure. If a ship arrives in a Sri Lankan port, there is a shipping agent involved. That agent is linked to the whole network of electronic mails which are sent around to all the ports. Those emails have all information such as where the ship is intending to go, and whom the content is going to be dispatched to. When an incident of this sort happens, they always lie in this manner and try to evade responsibility.”

Referring to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal (an international treaty between 190 countries on the management, disposal, and transboundary movements of hazardous wastes produced worldwide), she said that the said Convention does not allow hazardous material to be transported across the oceans, and queried as to why the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) allows such transportations. “When ships are allowed to transport hazardous material and an accident of this sort happens, the whole aquatic system is destroyed. Whatever the hazardous material, they are consumed by the fish and eventually end up on our plates. In our case, Sri Lanka cannot, at any time, accept hazardous material because we are a signatory to this Convention. If a ship is arriving for fueling and cleaning up, that is a different story, but they cannot unload anything here.” 

During the Basel Conference which was attended by the relevant stakeholders in 2019, the respective governments amended the Basel Convention to include plastic waste in a legally binding framework which will make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, whilst also ensuring that its management is not harmful for human health and the environment. Dr. Perera recalled the MV X-Press Pearl maritime disaster that took place in 2021, and blamed the authorities for not having learned a lesson.

“The MV X-Press Pearl was also carrying hazardous material, and it met with an accident in Sri Lankan waters. All that hazardous material is now lying in our sea bed. The whole marine environment was polluted. All these harmful substances will come up very slowly, and the effects of such accidents will last for 35 to 50 years. It was because of this sort of accidents that this Convention was signed, but, what do our authorities do? They wait doing nothing till all these ships carrying hazardous material enter our waters. It is true that this particular accident (the ship named Dali) did not take place in our waters, but, what if it did not happen in the US, and happened in the Sri Lankan waters? Should we not block the slightest possibility for a maritime disaster to happen?”

She further blamed the IMO for not having prepared strict guidelines for the shipping lines on transporting hazardous material, saying: “The IMO is also to be blamed for this issue. They do not have proper guidelines for the shipping lines on how to handle hazardous material. When the MV X-Press Pearl met with the accident, the hazardous materials aboard it were not packed properly, so they all ended up in the sea. Millions of plastic pellets went all over the sea, and the people are still collecting them. That is why the IMO should have proper guidelines. They should be much more strict on the transportation of hazardous material. The material in this ship may not have been intended for Sri Lanka, but, they were to be unloaded somewhere else, and its consequences are for the whole world.”

Central Environmental Authority (CEA) former Chairperson and incumbent Opposition Parliamentarian, Prof. Charitha Herath, speaking to The Daily Morning, said that the CEA should have been informed of the content of the ship as per the relevant procedures. “If there is hazardous waste in a particular ship, and it sails through Sri Lanka, a prior notification must be given of its content. The local shipping agent should obtain a report from the ship regarding its content, and it should be submitted to the Chemicals and Hazardous Waste Management Unit under the Waste Management Division of the CEA,” he said. 

He further said that the CEA, being the local implementing agency for the Basel Convention, would then study the ship's content, particularly hazardous waste, and decide whether the ship should be allowed to enter a Sri Lankan port or not. “The question is whether it happened in this case, and it has not.” He also said that it is the CEA that should be informed of any environmentally-hazardous material that is brought into the country, and not the SLPA. “The SLPA is an entity that focuses on business. They wouldn’t even mind such materials being brought into the country. A notification may also be made to the SLPA when the ships are close to the port, but it is the CEA that must be informed of the arrival of such a ship,” he said.

When contacted by The Daily Morning, CEA's Chairperson Venura Fernando said that the CEA should be informed of the hazardous material contained in a ship, both in the cases of such being unloaded in Sri Lanka and transshipped in Sri Lankan waters, but added that no such notification was made to the CEA with regard to the ship in question. “Certain materials are classified as hazardous materials, but they are used for manufacturing activities. We allow such material to be unloaded in Sri Lanka following an evaluation conducted by a technical committee. When such material is transported to Sri Lanka aboard a ship, the CEA should be informed before such being loaded into the ship, but, we did not receive any such notification in this case.” Explaining the process related to transshipments, he said: “Even when a transshipment takes place, they should inform us and obtain our approval. It too did not happen in relation to this ship.”

The Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee (SOC) on the Environment, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development is also likely to intervene in the issue. SOC Chairperson Ajith Mannapperuma told The Daily Morning that the Committee is currently studying the incident of the containers of the ship which was supposed to arrive in Sri Lankan waters containing hazardous waste. “We came to know about this. Currently we have not taken any decision, but we will look into this in the future. The Committee has the necessary powers to call the relevant institutions before the Committee, if a need arises.”

Multiple attempts to contact the State Minister of Environment, Janaka Wakkumbura, the Secretary to the Environment Ministry B.K.P. Chandrakeerthi, and the MEPA proved futile.