Ecological bomb threatens the Red Sea
(ORDO NEWS) — Countries on the shores of the Red Sea are threatened by an environmental time bomb. So the Arab press calls the tanker Safer, which rusts on the outer roads of one of the ports in Yemen. In March 2015, the ship was captured by the Hussite rebels. On board are about one and a half million barrels of oil. Formally, the fuel belongs to the official authorities of the country, but the rebels do not intend to give up the captured.
According to NTV channel, the tired metal of the Safer oil tanker is resistant to corrosion from the last forces. The salty waters of the Red Sea have been corroding the ship’s hull for almost 5 years, in the tanks of which, according to UN experts, there are more than a million barrels of oil. The point of no return when an oil slick spreads along the coast can be passed very soon. UN experts are not allowed into the captured vessel.
The situation off the coast of the Red Sea is so serious that the government of Yemen is urged to intervene in the affairs of their country. The Yemeni Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed the international community. He writes that influential forces need to put pressure on the Hussites to enable the UN technical team to unload fuel from the vessel and prevent a major natural and economic disaster.
The hull of the vessel rusts, and a critical supply of oxygen accumulates in the tanks, which can explode at any second. Even a hole in one of the tanks will affect the entire ecosystem of the region. At the Institute for Global Change, University of Queensland, Australia, considering environmental risks, it was concluded that an oil spill could destroy not only the unique coral reefs of the Red Sea.
Tanker oil threatens all coastal biodiversity and mangrove forests. It is more difficult to calculate the risks for the global economy from pollution of the Suez Canal, the most important marine artery from Asia to Europe. Trade that is only recovering from the coronavirus pandemic may be paralyzed.
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