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29 March 2024

Fujairah hit again by oil pollution

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By Staff

Oil tankers and other foreign ships shuttling the Gulf appear to be still violating local laws and dumping sludge into the water as a large beach strip in Fujairah has been hit by pollution for the second time in two weeks.

Fishermen going to the sea on Friday were surprised to see the yellow sandy area was blackened by tar balls, just two weeks after it was hit by pollution, the Sharjah-based Arabic language daily Alkhaleej said.

The paper quoted officials as saying an oil slick had apparently washed ashore and polluted nearly six km of beach strip between Marbah and Kadfaa in the eastern emirate. The paper said pollution reached an area close to the emirate’s electricity and water plant but that its operations were not affected.

“We have received a report about the pollution and sent our teams to start a clean up operation…the operation is still under way and we believe it will take some time,” the paper said, quoting Asila Abdullah Al Muallah, director of public services and environment at Fujeirah Municipality.

She did not mention how the pollution was caused by UAE officials have blamed waste dumping by oil tankers and other vessels for incidents involving pollution at beaches and other areas in the northern emirates.

Fujeirah is located just outside the strategic Hormuz Strait, the Gulf’s only gateway through which more than 20 per cent of the world’s oil exports pass.

The UAE and other Gulf hydrocarbon producers have enacted laws banning throwing waste and oil sludge into the water by the hundreds of tankers playing the region. But many vessels have been reported to be still violating that ban.

Sludge-dumping, oil pipeline and terminal leakages, and tanker accidents have turned the Gulf into the most polluted area in the world.