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Tuesday, August 25, 2020

Why 150 Million People In Six Red Sea Countries Should Be Watching Mauritius’ Oil Spill Response - Forbes

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150 million people live in six countries along the Red Sea, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Djibouti, Sudan Eritrea. The Red Sea coastline contains some of the regions most important population centers with Jeddah (4 million in Saudi Arabia), Port Sudan, tourist hotspots of Hurgada and Safarga, as well as the fast growing coastal cities of Djibouti, Massawa, Al Hodeidah, Eilat and Aqaba.

This region has some of the most unspoilt and richest coral reef ecosystems in the world, that have stayed relatively resilient from the climate crisis.

However, since July, concerns have been elevated that the entire Red Sea region is facing one of the world’s biggest environmental crisis: an oil spill of a magnitude never before seen in such a biodiversity sensitive area. Add in a world paralyzed with a coronavirus pandemic, and we have the perfect storm for a major humanitarian crisis that will play out in front of the world’s media.

Massive Yemen Oil Tanker: abandoned and ready to blow

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A massive oil tanker containing 1.14 million barrels of crude oil has been sitting in storage off the coast of Ras Issa Port, off the coast of Yemen. Because of the ongoing civil war conflict between the Houthis and Government forces in Yemen, the tanker has spent a prolonged period at sea. The 45 year old ironically named, The FSO Safer, is moored at sea 37 miles North of the rebel-held port of Hudaydah.

There are now growing fears that the vessel could sink or explode - following water entering the tanker’s engine room. The rusting pipes and engine room that hasn’t been maintained for over five years, pose a particular hazard, as seen in dramatic footage taken last year.

If this was to happen, it would put the entire Red Sea, including one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes at risk of a major ecological catastrophe, the likes of which the world has never seen (most major oil spills have tended to be in lower population, remote locations).

Crude vs Bunker Fuel Oil Spills

By way of comparison, the Wakashio was carrying just over 1 million gallons of heavy engine fuel oil when it crashed into Mauritius. It is not clear how much of this 1 million gallons spilled into the Indian Ocean, but the devastation could be seen and measured on the ground. TheSafer oil tanker contains almost 50 times more oil (47.9 million gallons), although it is crude oil spill so has a different sort of effect and cannot be compared to bunker fuel spills as seen in Mauritius.

Being in the saltier and warmer Red Sea environment over such fragile coral ecosystems, and some heavily dense population centers where the population could experience both the impact of crude oil in water supplies, food supply, as well as the associated oil pollution, could catalyze a major ecological and humanitarian disaster punctuated with a food, water and health crisis. Over half the people in the region are currently dependent on some form of international aid. UN experts estimate the impact on marine life would be devastating with hundreds of species of sea turtles, sharks, rays and seabirds now at risk in addition to the pristine coral reefs.

The UN Security Council met recently to discuss ways to intervene in the situation, and expressed their deep concern at the “growing risk that the Safer oil tanker could rupture or explode causing an environmental, economic and humanitarian catastrophe for Yemen and its neighbours."

One of the big delays hampering an intervention has been a discussion around who would receive the proceeds from the sale of the oil, estimated at $40m (which is half of what it was worth before oil prices slumped recently).

International Community call for ceasefire

Such is the gravity of the situation that the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, as well as the UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutteres, have called for a ceasefire among rebel and Government forces so an international team could get in to stabilize the tanker and safely remove the oil.

The ceasefire has not happened after five years of more intense fighting in an ongoing civil war since Houthi rebels took over the Yemen capital, Sanaa in 2015.

In an assessment by the UK Department for International Development, they released a map that highlighted the extent of the spill and associated air pollution. This would set back the region for decades in terms of the impact of such hydrocarbons on the sandy beaches surrounding the Red Sea.

Lessons from Mauritius Response

If the countries around the Red Sea are complacent about the risk, they need only look at what is happening 2500 miles South in Mauritius. Calls for an independent international inquiry is growing in Mauritius amid widespread discontent on how the oil spill has been handled by both the shipping company as well as the Government and an army of international advisers who have bypassed the locally organized civil society efforts that have been on the front lines of the response.

Here are ten lessons that Governments around the Red Sea region should take away from how Mauritius’ handled the oil spill response, and what could be done differently.

1. Preparation

In a document presented at a UN Conference in March 2020 entitled ‘National Oil Spill Preparedness: Status for Mauritius,’ the full preparedness of Mauritius for a major oil spill could be seen. Governments from the Red Sea region should ensure their plans are up to date, and that they have all the equipment, oil protection booms, processes, documentation, legislation, regulations in place and up to date in the case of a disaster. This may also include any legislation or regulations that need to be updated on which vessels are allowed to travel in the waters around the Red Sea and the complex rules on oil spill compensation.

2. Practice now

When the oil spill hit, there was a ‘fog of war’ situation on the ground. What started as a shipping incident, quickly escalated into a major ecological crisis and now a major political crisis as the biggest ever protests in the country since independence is being organized for this weekend. The Wakashio was grounded on the coral reefs of Mauritius for 12 days and the single-hulled vessel dragged for almost 1 km against the jagged edge of the barrier reef before it split and the oil was released. The Government was highly dependent on international advisers sent by the global shipping regulator, the IMO, and salvage companies linked to the shipping company and insurance firms. Mauritians with deep expertise in the area were sidelined, and even when satellite analysis revealed the risk, this was ignored. Countries around the Red Sea region should run regular drills with various scenarios, so that all agencies are aware how to react, and that internal and external communication mechanisms are functioning effectively, and also that critical pieces of information can reach the right decisionmakers at the right time. The practice drills that the UK Cabinet Office’s Civil Contingencies Unit are some of the best in the world.

3. Invest in Technology

Responding to a major oil spill (especially if a country has never experienced one before), requires understanding a lot of very complex technologies very quickly. These include the various forms of oil protection booms (it can be seen in Mauritius that there are concerns about what oil protection booms were used and how they were deployed around the Wakashio, which will yield important lessons in the accident inquiry), the types of oil spill detection software (there was a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding in the early days of the oil spill with officials pointing to apparently transparent waters and claiming there was no risk. Advanced satellite technologies like Synthetic Aperture Radar reveal the toxic sheen on the surface water of the ocean that is so deadly to marine life. Understanding these types of satellite capabilities and

recognizing, just like purchasing a car, there are a range of satellites that each perform to a different capability and sensitivity in this domain (e.g., in the SAR satellite market a full review of the major participants should be done covering all major providers such as Iceye, Capella Space, Airbus, UN Satellite UNOSAT, European Space Agency). This will help overcome any confusion on the ground on the true extent of the spill. For example, with Mauritius, the more sensitive and accurate Iceye satellites were able to detect the spill in Blue Bay Marine Park and as far as 14 miles North within 5 days of the oil spill at Ile aux Cerfs, whereas the less sensitive UNOSAT and ESA satellites were not.

4. Transparency = Trust

In a national crisis, such as a major oil spill, having a transparency on the extent and nature of the spill from the best experts possible is foundational to any response. Trying to sugar-coat or manipulate data from the spill erodes trust and hampers the effectiveness of the response. This was clear in the Mauritius case study, where efforts to downplay the effects of the spill on the tourism sector, caused even more concern when the true extent of the spill, nature of the spill, impact on marine life (arsenic levels in fish 500% higher), and direction of the spill, has added more confusion to the situation. By not providing that transparency, trust was rapidly eroded and what started as an environmental crisis has now rapidly descended into one of the largest political crisis faced by Mauritius since independence, with large nationwide protests being organized for this weekend. For many Governments around the Red Sea, they have also seen the anger spillover against the Government of Lebanon following the Beirut Port explosion. Transparency will be the foundation to trust and any oil spill response. In Mauritius’ case, the silence of the army of international advisers and international Governments rushing to Mauritius has added to the mistrust not just of Mauritian authorities, but the motivations of various international corporate actors, regulators, and other Government representatives now in the country.

5. Partner with a large volunteer army

What was clear from the Wakashio incident, was as the Government and the oil spill response team was woefully disorganized, ordinary Mauritians had to step up to create homemade oil protection booms from dried sugar cane leaves, plastic bottles to keep these afloat, items of clothing and human hair to absorb the oil. The volunteers had also been going up and down the coast to help with the cleanup. These were local residents, concerned citizens, fishermen, tourism tour boat operators. Rather than supporting such efforts, civil society organizations have complained that their efforts are being undermined by a Government that is embarrassed it has been upstaged by a large volunteer army. Efforts to restrict the volunteer efforts - who have been informed by a wide network of international contacts with experience in managing oil spills - have created more anger among these civil society groups who feel the Government is sabotaging any genuine cleanup operation. Red Sea Governments should learn lessons from this, and find ways to work collaboratively with a much larger set of volunteers than any military and Government response can do alone.

6. Work with - not against - local NGOs

With Mauritius, the response was primarily limited to a Government-first response. There was some limited engagement with the private sector. In fact, it was many of the local NGOs who had been working for decades on environmental rehabilitation that were caught in the front lines, especially the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation and EcoSud. These organizations often had the deepest insights and local expertise needed to respond to the various aspects of the complicated oil spill response. In bypassing this local expertise, the oil spill response was doomed from the start. Red Sea Governments should begin assessing which local civil society groups have been working on various issues in the region, so the best and most relevant data and talent can be brought to address the problem and improve the quality of the response. This is not just limited to Government, but also many of the international efforts that appear to be tripping over themselves by not engaging in a systematic and transparent way with local civil society organizations.

7. Proactively engage a sophisticated diaspora

In today’s interconnected world, there are many diaspora members of a country or community. This means there may already be deep expertise for various parts of an oil spill response. In the case of Mauritius, the country had been positioned as ‘the Singapore of Africa’ with a well educated and literate population, with a diaspora who had attended some of the world’s best universities and were world leaders in their field. By not engaging any of the thousands of diaspora who were offering their services to the country, and instead relying on an expensive army of international consultants with no link to the country, this has not just angered local Mauritians but the very influential international diaspora too. This has been compounded by many of the international agencies, foreign Governments and international companies repeating these mistakes. Red Sea countries should recognize that many of the talents needed for a major oil spill response may already exist among its diaspora community, and a mature and proactive approach should be taken to harness the best talent for the region, who have the deepest passions for any long term rehabilitation plan.

8. Establish a central nerve center

In any ‘fog of war’ situation, the early day interventions are critical. There needs to be one source of truth through which decisions are taken, and filtering mechanisms through which those with insights are able to reach such a center. Social media has transformed emergency responses, and the wisdom of the crowd is often used to identify credible sources and data, from those that may be inaccurate. A Central Nerve Center that is on the front line of the incident, and which journalists can view, help build trust, transparency and ensure a response effort is being pursued in a careful and co-ordinated manner, as the situation requires. Today, there are many mobile command posts that can be deployed to such a field situation, and data can be piped in from any sources, so the hardware should not necessarily be the limiting factor. If Red Sea Governments have such mobile command centers, now is the time to be dusting them off, and running dry run rehearsals in case there is a need to rapidly deploy in the event of the tanker failing.

9. Science-led response

What has happened in Mauritius is that the science needed to respond to the crisis has swiftly become politicized. Secretive meetings between Government scientists and representatives of the polluting company has led to the wrong sort of evidence being collected. It has been over 1 month since the Wakashio grounded itself on Mauritius’ pristine coral lagoon, and yet best practice science have described the need to track for non-lethal bio-markers in fish. These can be tested using the many PCR tests the country has from Covid-19 preparation, and would indicate the true extent of the spill. However, the science being used, collection sites, methodologies and results have all been kept highly secretive. In an interconnected world, many of the world’s leading scientists who had offered to help are watching and wondering about the quality of Mauritius’ scientists. Mauritius has a world class Oceanographic Institute and Fisheries Research Center, along with some of Africa’s best universities and private laboratories. By not allowing access to independent scientists to guide the science gathering effort, the credibility of local scientists and the international oil spill response team paid for and sent in by the shipping company, is eroding faith in the science. Red Sea Governments should bear this in mind, as the longer term repercussions are that if countries wish to be seen as having world class and independent scientific collaborations, the transparency with which they conduct their work is critical. As anyone in the scientific world knows, the views of peers - especially international peers - can mean all the difference on academic progression and recognition in the world.

10. Local oversight in any response

Since the start of the crisis on 25 July, one of the loudest complaints has been how ordinary Mauritians have been sidelined in various plans by the international community. Platitudes, such as from the Mauritian Prime Minister that the situation remained under control and that international ‘experts’ were on the scene, has quickly descended into farcical and angry scenes as the single-hull vessel dragged along the coral reef for 12 days, spilt its cargo, then split in two separate sections, and then there was the dumping of the forward section of the Wakashio in a mysterious location where the Government of Mauritius has still not revealed the precise co-ordinates. The army of international consultants who descended on Mauritius with unclear funding paths linked to the shipping company, insurance company and oil response firms, and offering various tools for spill detection, containment and rehabilitation has angered many Mauritians. Such efforts reflect the very worst of Western Aid approaches, epitomized with the 1984 Ethiopia Famine and the immortal lyrics, “Do they know it’s Christmas time [in Africa]” (details of criticism here). A quarter of a century later, the oil industry and international aid community have clearly not learned their lessons. Perhaps they are the ones who may need the aid to survive, amid a global climate crisis and pressure for transparency on an industry that is already looking like a relic of a bygone age.

Local civil society groups around the Red Sea should be aware of such a response, and start preparing a co-ordinated civil society response now, to ensure that any international effort has strong local oversight, that is independent and not just Government driven.

Early interventions count

Amid the challenges of a global coronavirus pandemic, action taken in the early day of such an oil spill crisis could have prevented a bad shipping incident turning into an ecological and human health disaster and now the largest oil clean up along the pristine beaches of the Indian Ocean.

If the six countries around the Red Sea aren’t taking the right steps to prepare now, the much larger scale of 150 million people being affected (rather than than 1.3m of Mauritius), means we are looking at a scale 100x greater and having ecological, macroeconomic and regional political consequences.

As more light is shone on the issues involved with oil spills and their response, calls for big changes - such as those led by Sir Richard Branson - are mounting on the large shipping regulator, the IMO, to begin making those changes

The Link Lonk


August 25, 2020 at 09:17AM
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Why 150 Million People In Six Red Sea Countries Should Be Watching Mauritius’ Oil Spill Response - Forbes

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