Wellington, Oct 11 (ANI): New Zealand's Environment Minister Nick Smith has termed the Rena ship oil spill as the 'worst maritime environmental disaster'.
Smith said oil is haemorrhaging from the ship's punctured hull at "fivefold," the rate it was in the days after Rena's grounding on the Astrolabe Reef, stuff.co.nz reports.
It was estimated that up to 350 tonnes of oil has spilled from the ship since it ran aground on Wednesday, and Smith said that significant quantities of oil would start washing up on beaches near the ship from tomorrow.
Although he assured that the spill was inevitable from the moment the Rena ran ashore, he said the clean-up would be "a marathon, not a sprint".
Meanwhile, Prime Minister John Key has rejected suggestions the government had reacted too slowly to the looming environmental catastrophe.
"This is a very difficult and complex situation and there are a limited number of people around the world that you ultimately have to mobilise to New Zealand to ensure that you can ultimately start a recovery operation," he said.
Insisting that the oil is likely to be on the beaches "for quite some time", Key said it is "too early" to talk about compensation.
"I understand they (the shipping company) have significant insurance and I am sure Maritime New Zealand, in due course, will have those discussions. There are also two investigations under way and we will need to get those investigations reached, which will probably take quite some weeks and then understand how liability should be apportioned but we will do that in due course," he added. (ANI)
|
|
Comments:
