Oil spill spreads again

More oil spilled from the train wagons that fell into a canal in Chittagong a week ago, threatening the ecosystem in and around the Karnaphuli river.

Oil started gushing out of the wagons when the authorities on Wednesday afternoon tried to pull the tankers out of the canal that flows into the river, locals said.

The wagons, each carrying 25,000 litres of furnace oil for Dohazari Peaking Power Plant from the port city, plunged into the canal when a bridge collapsed at Khitabchar of Boalkhali last Friday.

"A huge quantity of oil spilled when they [the authorities] tried to lift a wagon from the canal yesterday [Wednesday]," said local youth Mohammad Karim while collecting the spilled oil yesterday.

Contacted, Divisional Railway Manager Md Mafizur Rahman claimed that the spillage has been contained. "Oil is not spilling from the wagons today [yesterday]."

Asked when they expect to complete the salvage operation, he said it would take two to three more days.

The salvage work was taking longer than the initial estimate due to inclement weather, Mafizur added.

Meanwhile, locals continued scooping up spilled oil using nothing but their household utensils yesterday.

A boy yesterday tries to separate oil from water at Boalkhali of Chittagong. Three wagons of a oil carrying train fell into a canal last Friday. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

"I have collected 110 litres of oil since yesterday [Wednesday] evening and sold it to Jamuna Oil Company at Tk 60 per litre," said Mohammad Karim.

Md Hasan Imam, deputy general manager (sales) of the company, said they collected 1,978 litres of oil from the locals yesterday alone.

Divisional Railway Manager Mafizur Rahman claimed that most of the spilled oil had already been collected by the locals.

However, visiting the site, our correspondents found a different picture.

At Military Pool, around 6km west of the accident site, oil slick was seen flowing towards the Karnaphuli with the tide.

Locals said the spillage spread this far after more oil spilled on Wednesday afternoon.

The booms, placed around the spill site to prevent oil from floating farther, were not of much use, they said.

IMPACTS BEGAN?

At Khitabchar, our correspondents found a large number of dead fishes floating in a pond, barely half a kilometre from the spill site.

The pond gets water from the canal through a drain during high tide.

Abu Hashem, owner of the pond, said the fishes started dying on Wednesday.

Dead fishes float as the oil slick spread to a nearby pond. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das

"Most of the Rui and the Katla fries I released in the pond around a month back have already died. It's all because of the oil spill," he claimed, adding that this had cost him at least Tk 3 lakhs.

Authorities at the Dohazari Peaking Power Plant, meanwhile, fear that they might have to shut down production if they don't get more fuel soon.

With the existing stock of fuel,  the 102MW plant could operate for nine more days at best, said Manager Arifur Rahman Bhuyan of the plant.

Apart from the railway, there's no alternative way to ship the fuel to the power plant, he said.

People taking the oil they had collected to a BPC booth to sell it. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das