SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
'Catastrophe': Oil Spill at Bangladesh World Heritage Site
Dec 15, 2014
Fears of long-lasting ecological damage at a UNESCO World Heritage site are mounting following a massive oil spill into a river in Bangladesh.
The disaster began early Tuesday last week when an empty vessel struck a tanker carrying an estimated 92,500 gallons of oil, causing the fuel-filled vessel to capsize in the Shela River. That waterway is part of the biodiverse-rich Sundarbans, the world's largest contiguous mangrove forest and home to the endangered Bengal tiger and Ganges and Irawadi dolphins. An area next to the river is designated as a dolphin sanctuary.
A forest official said Saturday that the spilled furnace oil had spread to an estimated 300 to 350sq kilometers through the mangrove's network of waterways. Hundreds of fishermen in the area are attempting to clean up the oil with pots, pans and sponges, Agence France-Presse reports. The area's chief forest official Amir Hossain told the news agency Thursday that there were "no coordinated efforts to tackle the disaster," and said the air in the area was toxic.
The spill could be "the largest catastrophe to have happened in this fragile mangrove ecosystem," Monirul Khan, a zoology professor of Dhaka's Jahangirnagar University, told AFP. "It's going to cause a long term damage to the forest," he said, adding that the impact could be worse than that of the deadly 2007 cyclone.
Media reports add that environmentalists have long sounded alarm about the risks of using the Shela River to transport such cargo.
Ecology and biodiversity researcher Pavel Partha told the Dhaka Tribune Tuesday that the dolphins "will soon find breathing hard because the thick layer of oil over the river water will reduce the level of dissolved oxygen."
On Sunday, a potential dolphin victim emerged. The Dhaka Tribune published a photo of a dead dolphin floating in a canal off the Shela River, though an autopsy has yet to confirm the death was the result of the oil spill.
Dhaka University botany department Professor Abul Bashar warned of inaction, telling Bangladesh's bdnews24 Monday: "The effect on various species of trees and animals will be visible after at least three generations."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Fears of long-lasting ecological damage at a UNESCO World Heritage site are mounting following a massive oil spill into a river in Bangladesh.
The disaster began early Tuesday last week when an empty vessel struck a tanker carrying an estimated 92,500 gallons of oil, causing the fuel-filled vessel to capsize in the Shela River. That waterway is part of the biodiverse-rich Sundarbans, the world's largest contiguous mangrove forest and home to the endangered Bengal tiger and Ganges and Irawadi dolphins. An area next to the river is designated as a dolphin sanctuary.
A forest official said Saturday that the spilled furnace oil had spread to an estimated 300 to 350sq kilometers through the mangrove's network of waterways. Hundreds of fishermen in the area are attempting to clean up the oil with pots, pans and sponges, Agence France-Presse reports. The area's chief forest official Amir Hossain told the news agency Thursday that there were "no coordinated efforts to tackle the disaster," and said the air in the area was toxic.
The spill could be "the largest catastrophe to have happened in this fragile mangrove ecosystem," Monirul Khan, a zoology professor of Dhaka's Jahangirnagar University, told AFP. "It's going to cause a long term damage to the forest," he said, adding that the impact could be worse than that of the deadly 2007 cyclone.
Media reports add that environmentalists have long sounded alarm about the risks of using the Shela River to transport such cargo.
Ecology and biodiversity researcher Pavel Partha told the Dhaka Tribune Tuesday that the dolphins "will soon find breathing hard because the thick layer of oil over the river water will reduce the level of dissolved oxygen."
On Sunday, a potential dolphin victim emerged. The Dhaka Tribune published a photo of a dead dolphin floating in a canal off the Shela River, though an autopsy has yet to confirm the death was the result of the oil spill.
Dhaka University botany department Professor Abul Bashar warned of inaction, telling Bangladesh's bdnews24 Monday: "The effect on various species of trees and animals will be visible after at least three generations."
Fears of long-lasting ecological damage at a UNESCO World Heritage site are mounting following a massive oil spill into a river in Bangladesh.
The disaster began early Tuesday last week when an empty vessel struck a tanker carrying an estimated 92,500 gallons of oil, causing the fuel-filled vessel to capsize in the Shela River. That waterway is part of the biodiverse-rich Sundarbans, the world's largest contiguous mangrove forest and home to the endangered Bengal tiger and Ganges and Irawadi dolphins. An area next to the river is designated as a dolphin sanctuary.
A forest official said Saturday that the spilled furnace oil had spread to an estimated 300 to 350sq kilometers through the mangrove's network of waterways. Hundreds of fishermen in the area are attempting to clean up the oil with pots, pans and sponges, Agence France-Presse reports. The area's chief forest official Amir Hossain told the news agency Thursday that there were "no coordinated efforts to tackle the disaster," and said the air in the area was toxic.
The spill could be "the largest catastrophe to have happened in this fragile mangrove ecosystem," Monirul Khan, a zoology professor of Dhaka's Jahangirnagar University, told AFP. "It's going to cause a long term damage to the forest," he said, adding that the impact could be worse than that of the deadly 2007 cyclone.
Media reports add that environmentalists have long sounded alarm about the risks of using the Shela River to transport such cargo.
Ecology and biodiversity researcher Pavel Partha told the Dhaka Tribune Tuesday that the dolphins "will soon find breathing hard because the thick layer of oil over the river water will reduce the level of dissolved oxygen."
On Sunday, a potential dolphin victim emerged. The Dhaka Tribune published a photo of a dead dolphin floating in a canal off the Shela River, though an autopsy has yet to confirm the death was the result of the oil spill.
Dhaka University botany department Professor Abul Bashar warned of inaction, telling Bangladesh's bdnews24 Monday: "The effect on various species of trees and animals will be visible after at least three generations."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.