Oil spills into Kirtonkhola

Oil spill in the coastal area of Bangladesh have become frequent in recent time. Accident are in most cases blamed for this but, experts say, there has been regular spill of oil from filling trawler, passengers and cargo vassal from costal maintenance of their engines which use oil as fuel.

Besides water vessels flying boat on in land rivers routes and selling out to the sea area offend found cleaving in and around the Sundarbans and costal water's. Due to lack of monitoring vassals through bilge and ballast water on river's polluting through. Since the December 17, 2014 oil spill in Shala River inside the Sundarban's there has been at list four more spill in Bagerhat, Satkhira, herokpoint and Barisal. The latest accident on the Kitonkhola River involves a big oil tanker which was carrying 1.2 million liters of diesel and petrol.

It is urgent to determine the quantity of oil that as spill to extent or damage causes to fish other aquatic animal and birds that fit in the area. Diesel has started spilling into the Kirtonkhola River in Barisal when an oil-carrying vessel MV Ma Babar Doa-2 collided with a cargo ship MV Fazar which was transporting  fuel oil to Jamuna Oil Depot on Friday, said Commander Rafikul Islam of Nirbhik, a rescue ship of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority or BIWTA.


The tanker vessel from Chittagong was carrying 950,000 liters of diesel and 300,000 liters of petrol before the crash, he said. Diesel has spilled into the river but authorities failed to specify the quantity. Azmal Huda Sarkar Mithu, deputy director (marine and passenger safety) BIWTA at Barisal, said some oil was split  from the oil-tanker. But it was controlled immediately by transferring the load from damaged upper chamber to lower chamber of the vessel. 

MV Ma Babar Doa-2, laden with fly ash, was heading for Dhaka from Mongla. Both vessels have been partially damaged in the incident. But no immediate reports of injuries could be known. The accident happened because the cargo was playing without pilot and failed to respond to the signal of the oil tanker, alleged Jamshedur Rahman, captain of MT Fazal.  

Ershad Ali, sukani of the cargo 'MV Ma Babar Doa-2', acknowledging the fact, said the cargo was plying without pilot as the pilot scheduled on duty failed to board on the vessel from Kaukhali river port.