All eyes on Southern Coast as debris and spills from IRIS Dena trigger pollution scare

By Tharushi Weerasinghe

Debris and pollutants from the IRIS Dena, the Iranian vessel torpedoed by a US Submarine 19 nautical miles away from Sri Lanka’s southern coast, washed up on beaches along the southern belt last week.

Orange slicks lapped at the beaches of Hikkaduwa and Dodanduwa and oil barrels washed ashore Meanwhile an influx of scientists and coastguard officers were investigating the potential impacts and further pollution that could result from the incident.

Environment officers use absorbent gunnies to clear out any pollutants in the water

“We suspect it is lubricant oil, very close to the beach, almost at the beach, extending up to two to five nautical miles towards the sea,” Sri Lanka Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Prasad Jayasinghe said. Working across the Hikkaduwa and Nonagama stretches, his teams deployed booms to contain the patches and then used absorbent pads to lift the oil from the surface.

The response saw 50 to 60 personnel from the naval command, 30 to 40 from the coastguard, and additional civilian partners through the Clean Sri Lanka initiative and the respective municipal councils involved in the operations. Weligama and Hikkaduwa municipal councils handled the disposal. Commodore Jayasinghe noted that while his teams are on standby, rough seas were complicating containment: “When the sea gets rough, it gets scattered.” He added that diesel tends to evaporate in sunlight, whereas lubricating oil is more persistent because it sticks to the water surface and remains.

Read more in last week's Sunday Times edition here