The Maritime Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) has revealed that 26 ships were responsible for polluting Sri Lankan waters in the past year, according to data from a satellite monitoring project conducted in collaboration with the French government.
This project, designed to monitor maritime pollution, utilizes advanced satellite technology to track and analyze incidents of marine contamination. Notably, the devastating shipwrecks of the New Diamond and X-Press Pearl have caused significant environmental damage to Sri Lanka’s marine ecosystem. The New Diamond caught fire and sank off the east coast in September 2020, while the X-Press Pearl, a Singapore-registered vessel, sank near Colombo Port in May 2021, both leading to long-lasting harm to marine life and coastal areas.
In response to these disasters, MEPA partnered with a French company to launch a pilot project assessing fuel spills in Sri Lankan waters using satellite imaging. The findings from this initiative confirmed that 26 ships had polluted the waters over the past year.
Project Manager Oliver Germane commented on the startling results: “When we presented these reports to stakeholders, they were surprised, as they didn’t expect so much pollution in national waters. A total of 115 pollution incidents occurred within 12 months, with more than a 50% chance of detecting pollution in each satellite image we acquired.”
He added, “The total volume of pollutants released into Sri Lankan waters over the past year exceeded 6 million liters—an average of 500,000 liters per month. The X-Press Pearl incident in 2021 released 350,000 liters of pollutants, meaning that Sri Lankan waters face an equivalent volume of pollutants each month.”
Germane further stated that potential polluters were identified in 26 of the cases, allowing for action to be taken against them.
