Need seen for being in continuous preparedness to handle disasters

Many environment-related issues involved in oil spill cases, says Deputy Commissioner

Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B. Rupesh on Tuesday said that there was a need for being in continuous preparedness to handle any kind of oil spill in the sea in the backdrop of Mangaluru receiving voluminous crude oil through New Mangalore Port. She was speaking after inaugurating a two-day State-level Annual Pollution Response Seminar-cum-Workshop and releasing a book on Dakshina Kannada District Oil Spill Disaster Contingency Plan at Headquarters, No. 3, Coast Guard District (Karnataka), here.

Stating that oil spill in the sea is the most hazardous one, Ms. Rupesh said despite there being a number of legislation on handling oil spills, there are chances of complications in handling a crisis due to lack of communication between different agencies. She said that many environment-related issues are involved in oil spill and as such, the administration has brought out the Disaster Management Plan booklet.

Ms. Rupesh said that the district administration has effectively handled the recent rain havoc, floods and landslips and it would make continuous efforts to handle natural as well as man-made calamities in the coming days too.She said that instances of vessels sinking mid-sea either due to technical glitches or due to weather conditions have been increasing in the recent past off the coast in the district. There is a need to bring in rules to handle such instances as per law, she said.

Meanwhile, she complimented the role of the Coast Guard in handling coastal security as well as exigencies and said that the administration would continue to cooperate with the agency.

Karnataka Coast Guard Commander, DIG, S.S. Dasila said that being the nodal agency to handle oil spills in sea, the agency handles such instances in three stages. Though oil spills cannot completely be contained, effective handling of the situation becomes all the more important. For this, there needs to be adequate preparations, he said and hoped that the workshop would deliberate on these issues.

Mr. Dasila further said that No. 3 Coast Guard district head-quartered at NMPT in the city is functioning effectively. The force is equipped with required vessels, boats and equipment and has been closely monitoring all human activities in the sea. He said that all fishing vessels in the district are given colour code with the help of the Fisheries Department.

District Disaster Management Officer Vijay Kumar, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board’s scientific officer Jayaprakash Naik, CMFRI scientist Bindu Sulochana, NITK Professor Rajmohan and others were present.

Source: Read Full Article