X-Press Pearl – Worst Ever Man-Made Marine Disaster In Sri Lanka Waters & Economic Cost

By R. Devapriya –JULY 19, 2021

On 20th May, news reached about the fire on ship “X-Press Pearl” which had entered Colombo out harbor. This ship belongs to EOS RO Pte Ltd, a Singaporean company but the ship had been hired for maritime transportation of cargo by renowned X-Press Feeders Company which has been ranked 17th top shipping company. Available information indicates that X-Press Feeders Company has given the ship building order (“X-Press Pearl) to a Chinese company known as Zhoushan Changhong International Shipyard Company Ltd. The usual practice for giant shipping lines is to register and sail their ships under small companies in different names. They do so to restrict huge compensation payable for serious marine accidents by showing their meagre income and assets of the smaller shipping company.

According to the shipping agent, on board the ship, there had been 1486 containers, inclusive of 25 metric tons of nitric acid, the leakage of which had been the cause of fire. Nevertheless, unconfirmed reports reveal that there had been 87 containers with raw material used for making polyethylene and plastic, 88 urea laden containers, 42 containers with caustic soda and 8 containers with lead. In addition, the ship had been carrying chemicals like ethanol, methanol and sodium monoxide, 348 tons of petroleum and lubricants, electronic items, rubber and certain raw material including finished products. All these 195 odd items had been in containers. Anyway, there had been containers laden with a total of 42 different kinds of chemicals.

The ship started its voyage from Dubai Jebel Ali harbor on 10th May and On 11th May at Hamad seaport in Qatar, the ship crew had reported of a leakage of nitric acid, which is an inflammable substance carried in the containers. However, shortage of workers during Ramadan season had made the Qatari authorities to ignore the request. Thereafter, X-Press Pearl had set sail to India and had reached Hazeera harbor in Gujarat on 15th of May, belonging to Adani Pte Ltd. Inadequate facility coupled with hazardous nature of the inflammable substance leaking inside the ship had made Indian harbor authorities to reject the request for mending. Hence, the ship had diverted course to sail towards Colombo and had reached Colombo out harbor to be anchored on 19th May.

Neglect of duties by the shipping company and other responsible parties

As both Qatari and Indian harbor authorities had failed to provide assistance, the captain of the ship should have immediately contacted the shipping company or the Marine cargo recovery agent for relief. Without notifying them about the looming fire risk, the ship had sailed for eight consecutive days to reach Colombo out harbor, purely to avoid payments.

Sri Lankan Port Authority (SLPA) claims that in accordance with the agreements in force within the harbors in the Indian Ocean, Hazeera harbor in India had failed in its duties to provide advance notice of the impending fire risk to the ship, before leaving its port for Colombo. More so, it had been revealed that neither the crew nor the shipping agent in Sri Lanka had given advance notice to SLPA about the looming danger on board the ship. Nevertheless, they have informed SLPA only about containing the nitric acid leak. SLPA further claims that this information had been notified to them only at the eleventh hour. SLPA also claims, had Hazeera harbor passed down timely advance notice about the crisis, SLPA would have either prevented the ship entering Sri Lankan waters or would have been in preparedness to meet any contingency. On the other hand, had the Shipping company or the crew given early notice about the hazardous inflammable substance being carried in the containers, SLPA would have had prepared for the right method of fire fighting to douse the fire. Hence, in view of poor communications, there had been a delay in decision making about choosing the right method for dousing the fire.

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