UAE | Environment

Lending a hand to clean up oil spill

Eemirates Diving Association to send members and volunteers to Lebanon's beaches.

  • By Emmanuelle Landais, Staff Reporter
  • Published: 23:34 May 3, 2009
  • Gulf News

  • Image Credit: EPA
  • Israeli air strikes on oil tanks at a Lebanese power plant caused environmental devastation but no one was able to help clean up while bombs were still being dropped. A Greenpeace official said the full scale of the damage was still unknown.

Dubai: Dubai-based environmentalists are preparing to head to Lebanon to help with one side effect of the war environmental pollution.

Israel's attacks on fuel tanks at the Jiyeh power station caused a 10,000-tonne oil spill into the Mediterranean Sea, which could not be cleaned up because of the fighting

The Emirates Diving Association is preparing to travel to Lebanon as soon as possible to assist ecologists with expertise and equipment to cope with oil spills and hazardous marine waste caused by weeks of conflict.

According to IRIN, the United Nations news service, Israel's air force carried out approximately 7,000 aerial attacks throughout Lebanon. The navy also conducted thousands of bombardments of the Lebanese coast.

The bombings of fuel tanks also resulted in a fire that burned for three weeks, releasing a cloud of smoke that hung over Beirut that could be seen from 60km away.

"All the beaches in Lebanon have been affected and the impact of the crude oil spills is horrific. Crude oil is everywhere, from what we can tell from photos sent to us.

"We are in touch with environmental groups in Lebanon who have asked for our help and we have to go. We have to assess the situation first and once we know we will go with our volunteers to help clean up the beaches and check on the marine life. We want to do something immediately to help with the environmental impact," said Ebrahim Al Zu'bi, director of Emirates Diving Association.

The EDA has previously helped out with environmental clean-up missions in Sri Lanka and Thailand with the help of Dubai Police.

"We have always been helped by Dubai police who provide equipment such as lift bags, to lift heavy objects from underwater and this time around I'm sure they will help again," said Al Zu'bi.

Volunteers and members are ready to go but the number of people needed to help remains unknown until the extent of the damage has been assessed.

Speaking to IRIN, Omer Naeim, a communications officer with Greenpeace, said: "Lebanon does not have the resources to deal with this. A lot of countries are willing to come and help but nobody was able to come in while bombs were being dropped. Nobody really knows the full scale of the damage on Lebanon."

The EDA is on alert and ready to go as soon as possible.

"The number of people remains open, if they need 25 people we'll provide them and if they need 100 people we'll do our best to find them," Al Zu'bi said.

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