Being an island nation around which a bulk of the worlds’ trade flows, Sri Lanka ought to have a robust mechanism in place to deal with different crises in the maritime domain.
However, two incidents; the MT New Diamond, a very large crude oil carrier which caught fire and drift off the Eastern Coast of Sri Lanka in September 2020, followed by the Singaporean registered freighter MV X-Press Pearl which caught fire in May 2021, sinking off the Colombo Port’s anchorage and causing what is now termed as Sri Lanka’s largest marine pollution disaster, should have been a wakeup call for local authorities, and the populous to wake up from its slumber and recognise the elephant in the room; Sri Lanka is not ready to deal with maritime crisis, and our disaster response mechanisms, and resilience is weak.
As Sri Lanka moves through a transformative period following the political turmoil and the economic crisis which began in 2020–2023, learning from past mistakes, and enacting various reforms to avoid repeating them should be a priority. Disaster preparedness, capacity building and resilience is also a key area which is in need of reforms, and policymakers would be prudent to address the challenges in that subject area. The MT New Diamond and MV X-Press Pearl incidents point to the lack of a unified approach to deal with the crisis at sea. While there has been some legislation in place to govern response and impact mitigation, going by how the Sri Lankan Government responded to both incidents, highlight that the response was, to put it politely, ad-hoc. There was no clear coordination among the many stakeholders, with several entities seemingly in a daze about who should be doing what, and how an organised incident response takes place. Learning from both disasters, Sri Lanka would be wise to draft a Standard Operational Procedure (SOP) and improve stakeholder synergy, so that the island is better prepared for the next maritime disaster. Given the high volume of commercial shipping around the island and growing regional and global maritime connectivity, another crisis at sea is a ‘matter of when, not a matter of if’. Sri Lanka should also work in partnership, perhaps with organisations such as the United Nations, and via regional platforms such as the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) to capacity build, and acquire the necessary expertise to be better prepared for future incidents.
Sri Lanka’s maritime pollution regulator, The Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA), National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, the Merchant Shipping Secretariat, the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General's Department, the Ministry of Ports and Aviation, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Defence, the Disaster Management Centre, and at sea responders; such as the Sri Lanka Navy, Air Force, and the Coast Guard, all underperformed during both incidents. Post-incident response, by law enforcement and by state prosecutors also indicates a lack of expertise and specialists, who understand maritime law, the relevant conventions and the legal instruments needed to hold to account those responsible. There is much blame to go around, and many lessons to be learnt.
Sri Lanka also needs to move quickly to enact critical international laws which will help the island nation be better prepared for maritime disasters. As such, the Government should move quickly to bring into law the Nairobi Convention for the removal of shipwrecks and segments of the Marpol convention related to air pollution.
As such, a comprehensive review of existing mechanisms and the formulation of a robust disaster response and mitigation mechanism is urgently needed. An umbrella organisation which is operational around the clock, empowered and well-resourced to deal with, and manage maritime crises is a need of the hour.