Mazut spill from stranded ship under control in Yemen

Yemeni Transport Minister Waed Bathib has announced that technical teams were able to control the pollution caused by Mazut leakage from the ship (Champion 1) which has stranded off the coast of the city of Mukalla in Yemen’s eastern province of Hadramout. In a press statement issued today in Sana’a, Bathib said that Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ordered yesterday the Transport Ministry to put national emergency plans and to coordinate with the local authority in Hadramout to control the pollution caused by the leakage of Mazut. He pointed out that they contacted with the foreign coalition forces and fleets in order to help and take advantage of their expertise in this area, adding that the leakage took place in a confined space and was brought under control. For his part, Chairman of the General Authority for Maritime Affairs (GAMA) Dr. Yasser al-Zamani has said that 1810 tons of Mazut was unloaded from the ship (Champion 1). Champion 1 has stranded off coast of Mukalla coming from Aden port with a total tonnage of Mazut estimated at 4770 tons. Al-Zamani confirmed to (Saba) news agency that the authority is continuing to observe and exert efforts to complete the discharging of the ship from Mazut and combating the pollution resulting from the leakage, which is still simple compared to the amount of the total tonnage of the ship. He pointed out that the winds form a difficulty factor to the work because of the waves rates, as well as other difficulties due to the location of the incident, which is near the residents gatherings. Al-Zamani explained that the process of anti-pollution accompanied by the use of chemical dispersants by the crew of the Authority for the purpose of dismantling and dispersing oil spots, in addition to teams moving to nearby coastal areas affected by the pollution spots to work through the manual cleaning.