The environmental damage from an oil spill in the Solomon Islands has been worsened by a bauxite mining company’s continued loading operations near the site where a US$30 million bulk carrier went aground last month.
The Solomon Islands government has sought urgent help from Australia to deal with the environmental disaster because of frustrations at the slow progress in dealing with the spill.
The MV Solomon Trader had been loading bauxite from a mine on Rennell Island before cyclone Oma pushed it aground on a coral reef on Feb. 5.
Photo: Reuters / Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
So far, 75 tonnes of fuel oil have leaked into the ocean. The 225m ship was carrying up to 600 tonnes of fuel oil, as well as a full load of bauxite, the main ore used to make aluminum.
The clean-up operation could take months and might require further assistance from countries such as Australia.
“Once it hits rock the heavy fuel oil is effectively like a bitumen-
like substance and has to be removed by hand,” a source in the Solomon Islands with knowledge of the incident said.
The oil is yet to reach East Rennell, the largest raised coral atoll in the world and a world heritage site. Since 2013, the site has been on a UNESCO danger list because of logging and overfishing.
Authorities are concerned the ship is at risk of breaking up while Bintan Mining Solomon Islands Ltd, the Indonesian company that chartered the vessel, continues to load bauxite with other bulk carriers.
“Bauxite extraction and loading is continuing in the bay, that is further churning up the oil,” a source said.
The Solomon Islands government is expected to demand the company cease operations.
Officials from the Solomon Island Maritime Administration interviewed mining management on Thursday afternoon in Honiara.
A spokeswoman for the company confirmed its operations were continuing.
“Yes, we are continuing,” she said.
Salvage efforts were under way, she said, without elaborating.
An insurance company has engaged a salvage company in the Solomon Islands to handle the ship, which is owned by a Hong Kong company, South Express Ltd, but so far the rest of the oil remains on board.
“All of the evidence indicates very little prospect of imminent action that would involve getting the oil off the vessel and preventing the ongoing spill,” the source said.
It has also been reported that local villagers have been looting the ship for equipment.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has updated travel advice warning people to reconsider the need to travel to Rennell Island because “heavy fuel oil is a toxic substance” and exposure to it posed a health risk.
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre this week expressed concerned about the impact of the oil spill. It was working with the Solomon authorities to minimize the impact of the spill.
Australia’s Maritime Safety Authority has carried out surveillance flights and deployed several officials to the disaster zone.
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
China has approved the creation of a national nature reserve at the disputed Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島), claimed by Taiwan and the Philippines, the government said yesterday, as Beijing moves to reinforce its territorial claims in the contested region. A notice posted online by the Chinese State Council said that details about the area and size of the project would be released separately by the Chinese National Forestry and Grassland Administration. “The building of the Huangyan Island National Nature Reserve is an important guarantee for maintaining the diversity, stability and sustainability of the natural ecosystem of Huangyan Island,” the notice said. Scarborough
RSS