Latest news with #environmentaldisaster
The Independent
26-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Oil spill feared after cargo ship sinks off Kerala coast and containers wash ashore
India is scrambling to contain a potential environmental disaster after a container vessel sank off the coast of Kochi in Kerala, raising fears of an oil and hazardous chemical spill along the state's southern shoreline. The Liberia -flagged vessel MSC ELSA 3, carrying over 640 containers, sank about 38 nautical miles west of Kochi on Saturday. Among its cargo were 13 containers marked hazardous and 12 carrying calcium carbide, a highly reactive chemical. The ship also had more than 450 tonnes of fuel onboard, including 84 tonnes of diesel and 367 tonnes of furnace oil. The entire ship has since been submerged as the coast guard tried to block the oil with two ships, according to a statement from the Kerala chief minister's office. 'A Dornier aircraft is also being used to spray oil-destroying powder on the oil slick," the statement said. All 24 crew members were safely rescued by the Indian Coast Guard and Navy before the ship went under, but officials say the threat to the marine environment remains serious. Some containers have already washed ashore in coastal districts like Kollam and Alappuzha, prompting warnings from local authorities. Fishermen and residents have been advised not to approach or touch any container that has washed up or is floating near the coast. The Indian Coast Guard has launched a full-scale pollution response operation, deploying vessels equipped with containment booms, skimmers, and dispersants to try to control any oil that may have leaked from the sunken ship. An aircraft is also conducting aerial surveillance to assess the scale of the spill. The Kerala government has declared a state of environmental alert, asking people living nearby to move to safer places. Accidental oil spills in the ocean can have far-reaching effects, putting marine ecosystems to the local fishing industry at risk. The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information and Services (INCOIS) has warned that if spillage does occur, at least two coastal districts in southern Kerala could face contamination within 36 to 48 hours. Authorities are still assessing whether any hazardous materials have leaked from the sunken containers, but the presence of calcium carbide – which reacts violently with water – has added to the urgency of the response.
New York Times
26-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
In California, There's One Import That Nobody Wants
White sand stretches for miles where Pacific Ocean waves crash into the shore. Nearby, bicycles lean against seaside cottages that are accented by banana and palm trees out front. A rickety wooden pier offers spectacular views of sherbet-hued sunsets over the water. To the eye, Imperial Beach, Calif., is an idyllic beach town, a playground for tourists and Southern California residents alike at the southern border with Mexico. But lately, the view has been ruined by the sea breeze, which reeks of rotten eggs. The surfers who once prepared for big-wave competitions are gone. So are the tourists who built intricate sand castles and licked ice cream cones on the pier. Imperial Beach is now the center of one of the nation's worst environmental disasters: Every day, 50 million gallons of untreated sewage, industrial chemicals and trash flow from Tijuana, Mexico, into southern San Diego County. The cross-national problem traces back at least a century. But it has significantly worsened in recent years as the population of Tijuana has exploded and sewage treatment plants in both countries have fallen into disrepair. 'It's a public health ticking time bomb that isn't being taken seriously,' said Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of Imperial Beach. 'We need help.' Imperial Beach's shoreline, which has drawn tourists for more than a century, has been closed for more than 1,200 days in a row because of health concerns. A growing body of research suggests that even breathing the air may be harmful, as toxic particles in the water can become airborne. There are no overnight solutions, and officials on both sides of the border say that it will take yearslong expansions of sewage treatment plants to stop the pollution. In the meantime, Ms. Aguirre permanently sealed shut the windows of her home to keep out the noxious stench. More than 1,100 Navy recruits have contracted gastrointestinal illnesses after training in southern San Diego waters, the Office of the Naval Inspector General determined. And nearly half of the region's 40,900 households have experienced health problems, including migraine headaches, rashes and shortness of breath, that were most likely attributable to the sewage, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Things have grown so desperate that when Lee Zeldin, President Trump's new environmental secretary and a former Republican congressman, arrived last month, even local Democrats cheered. On Earth Day, Mr. Zeldin came to Imperial Beach and vowed to urgently fix the sewage problem, which he said was 'top of mind' for Mr. Trump. 'We are all out of patience,' Mr. Zeldin said. The crisis has upended life in southern San Diego County — what locals call South County — which has an unusual mix of touristy beach towns and industrial warehouses. The region is defined by its border with Mexico, where Spanish and English flow interchangeably and the densely populated hillsides of Tijuana loom in the distance. But South County residents have felt powerless when it comes to the complex international dynamics that have allowed so much sewage to overwhelm their neighborhoods. 'We want to be able to survive,' said Jesse Ramirez, 60, who has owned a skate and surf shop on Imperial Beach's main drag for three decades. On a recent morning during what would typically be the start of tourist season, his store was entirely empty. Imperial Beach, known to locals as I.B., was never as glamorous as the wealthy beach spots farther north. It takes its name from Imperial County, an inland region from which farmers once arrived each summer to escape the sweltering heat. The city has long been a working-class community, and its nearly four miles of coastline have functioned as a town square at the southwestern corner of the continental United States. Not long ago, surfers rode the world-renowned swells at Tijuana Sloughs, the city's southernmost beach. Locals walked their dogs on the warm sand and enjoyed the sea breeze and pints of beer on outdoor patios. But so-called extreme odor events happen more nights than not. Tests have found a disturbing slew of contaminants in the water, including arsenic, heavy metals, hepatitis, E. coli, salmonella, banned pesticides such as DDT, and more. 'We have watched in horror as the amounts of sewage have catastrophically increased,' said Serge Dedina, a surfer and environmentalist who served as mayor of Imperial Beach from 2014 to 2022. 'It's become kind of like a collective mental health crisis.' In the 1990s, in an act of binational cooperation, the United States built a plant on its side of the border to help treat sewage from Tijuana, which often flowed into San Diego beaches via northward currents from Mexico. At the same time, Mexico established a plant in Tijuana as well. But those plants haven't kept up with explosive population growth in Tijuana, one of Mexico's fastest-growing cities. Roughly 2.3 million people now live in the city, spurred in part by American companies that built factories there for cheap labor. Aging infrastructure and damage from turbulent rains have further reduced how much sewage the plants can treat. The sewage problem now stretches up to Coronado, a wealthy enclave known for the historic Hotel del Coronado, where rooms regularly go for $1,000 a night and a $550 million renovation just finished after six years. Beaches have been forced to close there as well, so fewer tourists are booking lodging, said John Duncan, the city's mayor. 'My biggest concern as mayor is that the reputation as 'the toilet of Mexico' starts to stick at some point and really hurts us,' Mr. Duncan said. In addition to the sewage that goes directly into the ocean, another 10 million gallons each day flow into the 120-mile Tijuana River, which begins in Mexico and winds northward into the United States before emptying at Imperial Beach, according to the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission, which manages the U.S. treatment plant and is overseen by the State Department. The river waste comes from factories, as well as from shantytowns in Tijuana that aren't hooked up to the city's sewer system. The river provides habitat for 370 species of birds along the Pacific Flyway, an important migratory pathway. But in recent years, it has essentially become an open sewer running through southern San Diego neighborhoods and near schools, researchers say. On a recent day, the water in the Tijuana River appeared fluorescent green and was spotted with foam, what scientists say is the product of industrial chemicals. Beneath lanky willows, discarded tires clogged the waterway. Crushed milk jugs and scraps of clothing piled up on the river's muddy banks. The sulfur stench was pungent, even through a respirator mask. Along the river, scientists have detected astronomically high levels of hydrogen sulfide in the air, which can cause headaches, fatigue, skin infections, anxiety and respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. Residents have complained about such symptoms for years, said Paula Stigler Granados, a public health researcher at San Diego State University. 'I consider this to be the largest environmental justice issue in the whole country,' Ms. Granados said. 'I don't know any other place where millions of gallons of raw sewage would be allowed to flow through a community.' The U.S. boundary commission has secured $600 million to double its treatment capacity to 50 million gallons per day, according to Frank Fisher, a spokesman. The Mexican plant is also working on repairs and expanding capacity, he said. Many worry that the changes will take too long: The expansion at the American plant alone will take five years. Some short-term ideas that have been floated include trying to treat the river water before it reaches neighborhoods and giving air purifiers to residents. Mr. Zeldin said when he visited San Diego in April that he was compiling a list of projects that would solve the crisis sooner. He suggested building a funnel at the Mexican treatment plant that would send sewage farther from the shore. Mr. Dedina, the former Imperial Beach mayor, moved there when he was 7 and grew up surfing and lifeguarding. But he surfed those waters for the last time in 2019, he said, heading back to shore despite perfect, 10-foot waves. The water that day was simply too foul. 'I just said: 'I can't do this anymore. I can't go in the water,'' he recalled. 'It's like Russian roulette.' In 2022, Mr. Dedina moved Wildcoast, the environmental nonprofit he runs, out of Imperial Beach because his employees began complaining of toxic fumes. Then, last year, he and his wife moved to central San Diego, away from the stench. The health risks in his hometown had become too much. 'I miss the life that I had,' he said. 'Grabbing my surfboard, going in the water. It's gone and it's tragic.'
Arab News
21-05-2025
- Science
- Arab News
How dried-out wetlands on the Iran-Iraq border threaten the region
LONDON: The dust storms that have choked Iranians and Iraqis for weeks and hospitalized thousands, are the canary in the coalmine for a complex environmental disaster unfolding in wetlands straddling the two countries' border. The Hoor Al-Hawizeh wetlands, north of the southern Iraqi city of Basra, are drying out and experts warn that continued decline, including in the connected Hoor Al-Azim marshes in Iran, could drive water shortages, migration and even conflict. 'These marshes once acted as natural barriers, trapping fine sediments and maintaining soil moisture,' said Hossein Hashemi, an associate professor of water resource engineering at Lund University in Sweden. 'But their shrinkage, caused by upstream dam construction, wartime destruction, and climate change, has exposed vast stretches of loose, dry sediment,' he said. 'As winds sweep across these barren areas, they lift large quantities of fine dust, leading to more frequent and intense storms.' The degradation of the wetlands, part of the Mesopotamian Marshes, also threatens unique wildlife, including softshell turtles, birds, fish and water plants. Hoor Al-Hawizeh is recognized by UNESCO for its biodiversity and cultural heritage, and Iraqi sections are designated wetlands of international importance on the Ramsar List, the world's largest list of protected areas. On the Iran side, Hoor Al-Azim is a crucial source of food, water, jobs and tourism to millions of people in the southwestern Khuzestan province. But now it is under threat. 'This brings with it the issue of forced migration, displacement, conflict, poverty, unemployment, hunger and more,' said Kaveh Madani, director of the UN University Institute for Water, Environment and Health and a former deputy head of Iran's Department of Environment. Data from Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran shows that since the early 1970s, Hoor Al-Azim has declined from some 124,000 hectares to 60,650 hectares. That means nearly half of its original area, including water and reed beds, has disappeared, mainly, scientists say, because of oil exploration, farming, dam building and climate change. 'The degradation has contributed to the displacement of local communities, increased poverty, and reduced agricultural productivity,' said Ali Torabi Haghighi, associate professor of water resource management at the University of Oulu in Finland. 'It has led to severe biodiversity loss, particularly among migratory bird species, native fish populations, and other aquatic and semi-aquatic life,' he added. In July 2021, one of the largest waves of nationwide protests began in Khuzestan over drought and water shortages. Security forces killed dozens and thousands were arrested, according to the human rights group, Amnesty International. Those same stresses persist today with temperatures exceeding 55 degrees Celsius in the summer months and drought again stalking the land. In May, around a thousand people were hospitalized in Khuzestan each day with heart and respiratory illnesses from sand and dust storms. Madani said urgent action was needed, not least to prevent political tensions flaring with countries accusing each other of not releasing enough water into the wetlands. Wildfires exacerbate the pollution. In early May, thousands of hectares of Hoor Al-Azim caught fire, local media said. Earlier this year, smoke and pollution from fires on the Iraqi side of the wetlands engulfed villages in Khuzestan, forcing schools and offices to shut for days. As well as climate effects, human activities are degrading the marshes. Around 80 percent of Iran's oil production is in Khuzestan and a 2021 study found that since the early 2000s, oil exploration projects have caused 'significant damage.' Hamidreza Khodabakhshi, a water planning expert and environmental activist in Khuzestan, said oil exploration had caused parts of the wetlands to dry up. 'Road construction and pipeline installation have not only damaged the ecosystem, but also blocked the natural flow of water,' he said. In February, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad told a meeting in Ahvaz, the main city in Khuzestan, that the government took responsibility. 'We are the ones who dried up the wetland, and we are the ones who hurt the people of Khuzestan — now we need to prioritize the employment needs of locals,' he said. The Hoor Al-Hawizeh marshes are fed by water from the Tigris River in Iraq and the Karkheh River in southwest Iran — sources that have sometimes become a point of conflict. Iran, Iraq and Turkiye have constructed dams upstream that scientists say have significantly harmed Hoor Al-Hawizeh. Since 2009, the marsh has also been effectively divided by a 65-km dyke built along the border by Iran to keep water inside its territory. Haghighi said tensions also flared over water allocation. 'In many cases, maintaining ecological water flows is given lower priority compared to agricultural, hydropower and municipal uses, resulting in severe consequences for wetland health,' he said. Scientists hope to raise the case of Hoor Al-Azim at the next meeting of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Zimbabwe in July. 'Sand and dust storms and wildfires are examples of the complex problems that are going to require complex solutions through diplomacy and cooperation,' Madani said.
