Cape Town - The NS Qingdao bulk carrier, authorised by the national Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries (Deff) and the South African Maritime Safety Authorities (Samsa), was in the process of a controlled dumping of the ship’s unstable chemical cargo 250km off the West Coast resulting in a severe maritime emergency.
It has now calmed down to a salvage operation.
Media reports revealed the cargo initially reacted with rainwater while offloading in Durban in November last year and started releasing toxic fumes that potentially endangered the ship and the coastline.
Speaking on behalf of the department, Samsa spokesperson Tebogo Ramatjie said after various challenges of the toxic cargo re-igniting and the vessel having to be towed back to sea to ventilate the cargo hold at St Helena Bay, the bulk carrier was then brought into the port of Saldanha Bay after the chemical decomposition and fire in the cargo hold was under control.
“The emergency has now been downscaled from a severe maritime emergency to a salvage operation that can be safely managed in port. The vessel is drifting off the port of Saldanha Bay, waiting for a berth,” said Ramatjie.
Ramatjie said no immediate environmental damage was noticed from the operations but Samsa and the Deff were in discussions with the vessel owner and insurers to arrange a medium to long-term environmental monitoring programme so that any potential future outfall could be managed responsibly as fast as possible.
The Joint Operations Committee (JOC) – which comprises national, provincial government officials and included local municipal representatives – were actively involved in managing this maritime emergency since the vessel was evacuated from the port of Durban.
Local government MEC Anton Bredell said: “Nobody wants to hear that the ocean is being used as a dumping site, but in this case, all the relevant authorities are working together to minimise the risks to prevent a potential environmental disaster if left unchecked.”
Bredell said this emergency dumping was done to protect the integrity of the ship, and to prevent a full-scale disaster where the ship might have broken up due to an on-board fire and potentially polluted the coastline with its cargo as well as the fuel it carried.
The Green Connection strategic lead Liz McDaid said their concern was that this toxic cargo has been dumped and polluted the ocean. “Authorities cannot continue to treat the ocean like a dumping ground for waste,” she said.
The cause of the incident was still under investigation and a chemical analysis of the cargo would be completed while the vessel was in port to determine the underlying causal factors for the fire and whether the vessel had any undeclared cargo in the hold.