P & O Cruise Line Pacific Star
Dumps 500,000 Litres Of Oil On Vanuatu
November 11, 2006
In what can only be described as the most sinister of environmental pollution plots, Pacific Star secretly dumped 500,000 litres in used engine oil, with delibertion and malice, on this tropical paradise. The village of Teouma is a common cruise ship port of call.
Passengers onboard the Pacific Star are being penalized by Teouma taxi drivers who refuse to service passengers off the vessel, after the illegal dumping. News of the mass dumping of engine “sludge” infuriated Vanuatu taxi drivers who went on strike, refusing to transport P&O passengers from the cruise ship terminal to Port Vila and forcing them to walk the 5km into town.
Police and the Vanuatu Maritime Authority are investigating the dumped oil, which is expected to take a month, while local government authorities are calling for harsh fines, totalling $35 million (VUV 3 billion), to be issued.
P&O claims it had no option but to dump the material on the island.
It appears they’ve dug deep holes, lined some with a thin plastic and just poured hundreds of thousands of litres of oil in. When the illegal dumping was discovered, someone came to the dump site, and tried to cover some of the oil with dirt. The oil just continued to seep out.
The dump threatens to affect about 100 villagers living within 800 metres of the dump site and a school is less than 1km away. The area is on the side of hill, below it a river runs, that provides villagers with drinking water. This will have an effect on the crops and people living downstream.
Port Vila MP Moana Carcasses Kalosil slammed South Sea Shipping for “trying to ruin our island paradise” and called for everyone involved to be prosecuted.
The captain of the P&O Pacific Sky (sic) would have been “well aware that Vanuatu is not capable of receiving dirty engine oil”, according to Commissioner of Maritime Affairs Less John Napuati.
He said the ports of Apra in Guam, Noumea in New Caledonia, Papeete in French Polynesia and Suva, Vuda Point and Lautoka in Fiji are Regional Ships’ Waste Reception Centres. Vanuatu is not.
Port Vila Municipality confirmed the dumping site at Teouma was approved only for sewage disposal and similar wastes.
The cost of oil disposal in nearby Noumea and Fiji is about $US30,000. The cost of having the oil trucked to the improper site, was considerably lower.
All shipping companies and agents operating international shipping in the Pacific have been informed of these arrangements and asked to ensure that all their ships, as far as practicable, limit the disposal of their waste to the designated ports.
Ernest Bani, of the Vanuatu Environment Unit, has called for the company to remove all the oil from the dump site. “We would like to see all the waste oil removed from the site into drums and then to be taken away to the main wharf and ask the company to ship it out of the country,” he said.
Vanuatu law provides for the boat to be confiscated and held until a court case settles the matter, according to Michele Kalwarai, Acting Secretary-General of Shefa Provincial Council. “An international company dumping oil in our land without abiding by our laws is irresponsible and disrespectful of the law of the country,” she said.
A former Pacific Star employee has alleged that he witnessed the dumping of oil at sea from the cruise ship in October 2005, which left a 3km oil slick. This is the same cruise line that has taken heat for a list of ethics violations. See the most recent case HERE
CRUISE BRUISE IS CALLING FOR AN INTERNATIONAL BOYCOTT OF THE CRUISE LINE. This cruise line is well aware of the proper practices for dumping their used waste, of all types. They have done this with malice, without regard for the people or the environment of Vanuatu. There is no way knowing for sure how many times they have polluted the environment, before actually being caught. They should not continue to enjoy profits at the expense of the environment.
