Trinidad and Tobago in serious environmental emergency after huge oil spill: here’s what’s happening.
The government of Trinidad and Tobagothe Caribbean island state that is part of the archipelago of the Lesser Antilles, is currently considering declaring, for the first time in its history, a level 3 environmental disaster due to the worsening of the situation following the oil spill which for days has been destroying a long portion of the coast of the island of Tobago, the smallest of its main islands that make up the state.
The nightmare for this Caribbean paradise began last week, when the ship The Gulfstream ran aground and capsized off Tobago, spilling into the sea a huge amount of oil which in a few hours reached the coast of the small island, damaging the precious coral reef that surrounds the island and the pristine beaches for over 25 kilometers of coastline.
The incident, as reported by the Tobago Emergency Management Agency (TEMA), occurred on Wednesday morning, but no distress call from the ship reached local authorities. Despite the difficulties, a group of rescuers managed to reach the ship, without finding any traces of life: the hypothesis is that the ship was abandoned to itself and the crew managed to save themselves on their own, although to date there is no confirmation of this.
The images coming from Trinidad and Tobago, shared by theOffice of the Chief Secretary of the island, give a good idea of the tragedy that the country has been facing for days, with teams of volunteers and others engaged for days in the clean-up operations. Yesterday the Prime Minister Keith Rowleyconfirming the commitment of over a thousand people in this race against time, specified that “the cleaning and restoration can only begin when the situation is under control. At the moment the situation is not under control”.
The tragedy risks hitting the state of Trinidad and Tobago hard also on the economic front since the Caribbean country lives mainly on tourism and in these days the Carnival season is startingthe moment when tourists flock to the two islands for this unmissable opportunity.
Particularly impressive is also the map released by TEMA itself which clearly documents how the oil spill is afflicting the island of Tobago in several places. In fact, before sinking, the ship lost oil for several miles and, due to the currents, the oily liquid reached several coastal areas, impacting at least two large coral reefs in the south of the island.
Source: www.greenstyle.it
