Photo Credit: Getty Images
Philippine authorities are racing to stop the oil spill from the 65-meter-long (213 feet) MT Terra Nova, which capsized on Thursday as monsoon rains battered large swathes of the country. The Philippine Coast Guard has deployed floating barriers and started to clean up an oil spill to prevent it from reaching the capital, Manila.
The leak appeared to be coming from the ship's engine, not its cargo tank, which was carrying close to 1.5 million litres of industrial fuel, officials said. There are fears that the spill, which stretches out over several kilometres, could be the worst in the country's history if it is not contained.
Videos released by the coast guard show a personnel siphoning oil from the affected waters with a bucket. But officials are "preparing for the worst", said Rear Admiral Armand Balilo, the coast guard spokesman.
The area is popular with fishermen and there are fears the spill could affect both the fishing industry and marine life.
"We are talking about industrial fuel here... It will definitely affect the marine environment and could even reach us here in Manila," said Rear Adm Balilo.
Hernando Bacosa, an environmental sciences expert at the Mindanao State University, said in an interview that the amount of oil the MT Terra Nova was carrying would warrant the issuance of the country's highest oil spill alert.
Rear Adm Balilo estimated that it would take a week to drain oil from the ship, which capsized in an area with a depth of 34 metres (111 feet), according to initial assessments.
However, Mr Bacosa said the relatively shallow terrain could make it easier to siphon oil from the sea. He compared it with an incident last year where an oil tanker sank off the coast of another Philippine province at a depth of almost 400 metres (1,312 feet) - stating that the deep waters made it more different to clean up the oil.
The MT Princess Empress had been carrying 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil - coating beaches in black sludge when it spilt.
Advocacy group Oceana has called on the Philippine government to assess the environmental impact of the oil spill, adding that "all those responsible for failing to prevent this tragedy - from concerned government agencies to private owners of the tanker - should be held accountable".
Lewis Musonye
