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X-Press Pearl insurers seek time till April to work out final compensation payment for fishermen
The insurers of stricken container vessel X-Press Pearl have asked the Government to give them time till April to complete a full assessment of damage claims for the fisheries sector.
The initial damage assessment made by the vessel’s insurers involved only a small sample of those who were affected in the three districts of the Western Province, Fisheries State Minister Kanchana Wijesekara told the Sunday Times. “A team from the insurers is here. We have submitted our claims but so far, the funds we have received are much less than what we asked for. We have requested for a full assessment of the claims. They asked us for two months to complete it, so it is due to be finished in April.”
The insurers had initially made an interim payment of USD 3.7 million to the Treasury to settle damages claimed by the fisheries sector and to meet the costs borne by state agencies in fighting the fire onboard the vessel. The funds received for fisheries claims have already been distributed through the divisional secretariats, according to the state minister.
A further interim payment of USD 1.75 million was deposited this month as part of assistance to the fishing community. Distribution of this second interim payment will follow the same procedure as the first, Mr Wijesekara added. Once payments are approved, they will be credited directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.
State Minister Wijesekara was among a group comprising Government ministers and officials who visited the site of the wreck on Friday (18) to inspect progress on debris and wreck removal. China’s Shanghai Salvage Company is in charge of the clean-up and salvage operations and it had told the group that 90 percent of the debris on the seabed had been cleared while the remaining bunker oil from the vessel had been removed without any spill. On February 1, the Government announced that salvage operations are on target to be completed within four months.
On Tuesday, the committee appointed by Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda to look into damage suffered by the fisheries sector met to discuss distribution of the second round of compensation. The committee includes Government officials, representatives of fishermen’s associations and area clergy. “We expect this round to be easier as the beneficiaries will be the same people whose claims were approved in the first round and their details are on file,” said a committee member, speaking on grounds of anonymity.
The Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara district secretaries have been instructed to obtain information from the divisional secretaries to estimate the amount required to pay the compensation.
The committee is confident of starting the process of compensation payments before the end of the month.
Some fishermen associations, though, say the authorities are not consulting them. “They did this during the first round, too. Many fishermen association representatives that the Government has put on this committee are associations allied to the Government. They will simply go along with whatever Government officials say,” claimed Aruna Roshantha, President of the All Ceylon Fisheries Trade Union. He said that in the first round of compensation, payments differed from as little as Rs. 15,000 for small fishing boats to as much as Rs. 80,000 for multi-day fishing trawlers. This created many issues due to a lack of transparency in how the amounts were determined.
Meanwhile, the “no-fishing zone” declared in the wake of the disaster last May has been reduced significantly. The initial zone designated after the disaster covered 457 square kilometres plus the Negombo Lagoon. Restrictions imposed on the lagoon were lifted on July 12 while the no-fishing zone was reduced to 206 square kilometres by December 1. Restrictions imposed in the Kalutara district have now been completely removed.
As of February 10, the no-fishing zone comprises an area with a two-kilometre radius around the wreck and 57 square kilometres of shallow water where the depth is less than 10 metres.
“The area surrounding the vessel is designated a no-fishing zone to facilitate salvage operations. We have been forced to keep a further stretch of 57 square kilometres designated still as we haven’t been able to do a survey of the area yet to check for undersea debris. We don’t have a survey vessel that can move over such shallow waters. Even the vessels the salvage company has on site can’t survey that area,” a senior State Fisheries Ministry official said.
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