|
| | | | | Comments On News Reports | | | Re: [Gulf Goans] Tar on beach, and potholes on roads
----- Original Message -----
From: Goa-World.com
To: gulf-goans@yahoogroups.com
Cc: floriano
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 12:04 PM
Subject: Re: [Gulf Goans] Tar on beach, and potholes on roads
GULF-GOANS e-NEWSLETTER (since 1994)®
From: floriano
Subject: Re: [Gulf Goans] Tar on beach, and potholes on roads
To: gulf-goans-owner@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, September 1, 2010, 6:11 AM
All the focus of tar balls presently appearing on Goan beaches will be on the oil spill near Mumbai as a result of two vessels colliding with one another.
But this is not the first time that we have seen tar balls invading Goan beaches.
When I deposed with the \'ONE MAN COMMISSION\'S set up by Manohar Parrikar to decide on the Miramar Beach Privatization, I had told Dr. Nandkumar Kamat (the said commissioner) many a things and one of them was the tar balls invading Goan beaches. I had educated him that these tar balls are nothing but the COW [Crude Oil Washing] from the passing super tankers which head for the gulf ports for loading crude. The new International regulation is that every loading terminal must accept the \'COW\' off the incoming tanker before the loading operation starts. There is a special tank designated on the tanker to store this COW. The washing of oil tanks takes place between the discharge port and the next loadport day and night. There is a computerized oil discharge monitor ( which does not allow COW to be discharged at sea] which is supposed to be tamper proof. But people find ways and means to bypass such monitors. In my sailing experience, none (or most) of the loadport terminals [Like Ras Tanura of Saudi Arabia] will accept the COW off the tanker. That means the tanker must come in with all tanks clean for loading. Therefore, where will have the COW from the tanker gone during the trip from the discharge port and the next loadport? Yes, you are right. INTO THE SEA during the trip.
Most tankers collect their COW until they reach the Cape Comorin [Tip of Sri Lanka] when coming from the far East like West Coast USA , Australia etc. Why? Because the countries lying on the route are very careful in monitoring the discharge from tankers enroute to the loadports. Japan is a hawk. Its aircrafts are monitoring the passage of each tanker to and fro. It will immediate detain the ship (bring it in any of the Japanese ports) and arrest the Captain if the ship is found to be discharging its COW into their sea, even by the cover of the night. Japanese worship their sea water and do not allow a single drop of oil into their sea waters. Therefore all the tankers wait until they reach the East Coast of India [from Cape Comorin to the Arabian Sea] and blatantly discharge the entire COW load into the sea day and night because they require to come to the loadport with all tanks clean. If one is standing at the after deck of the tanker, one sees a deep yellow trail with pumps overworking to empty the COW tanks. This is the crude oil which is deposited on the beaches of Goa as tar balls.
To stop this [I had told Nandkumar Kamat] the Goa government must insist that the Navy check the trail of each and every passing tanker from the air. Otherwise, the Navy being hosted in Goa is useless. Also the Central Government must come with an appropriate legislation to protect the Countrys beaches from this tar ball manace.
Is this happening?
Goa Su-Raj would demand that the Navy patrols the territorial waters of Goa and beyond for this blatant spillage both by sea and by air. Otherwise it would kick the Navy out of Goa whether the Center likes it or not. Period. This is the least that the so called Indian Navy in Goa can do for GOA.
Cheers
floriano
goasuraj
9890470896
www.goasu-raj.org for expanded scrolling party presentation on the Home Page - \'Announcements\' Section.
Note:
Goans to rule Goa???? The Party is waiting for volunteers from accross GOA [All 40 Constituencies] to come forward to contest the next assembly elections circa 2012. This Party has a procedure to short list the final candidate from many without hurting the rest. All one needs to do is pick up the phone and call.
Visit www.goasu-raj.org
----- Original Message -----
From: Goa-World.com
To: gulf-goans@yahoogroups.com
Cc: goa-goans@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 01, 2010 2:48 PM
Subject: [Gulf Goans] Tar on beach, and potholes on roads
GULF-GOANS e-NEWSLETTER (since 1994)®
www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans/ www.goa-world.com
http://www.goa-world.com/goa/credit%5Ccredit.htm
Tumcam Maie-mogacho ieukar. Enjoy Life - This is not a rehearsal! Konkani uloi, boroi, vach ani samball - sodankal. Hich Goenchi osmitai ani amchem khalxelponn. Goenchi amchi Konkani bhas! Ekvottachem saddon Goenkaranchem.
Stay tuned to Gulf Goans e-Newsletter - everyday someone, somewhere learns a little.....
Tar on beach, and potholes on roads
Just as there can be no smoke without a fire, there can be no tar balls without an oil spill. When tonnes of slimy tar balls suddenly start to pile up on Goa’s beaches, you can be reasonably certain that a huge oil spill somewhere is responsible.
And when the authorities start to tell you that this is ‘normal’ during the monsoon, you need to ask how many times it has occurred during the last 20 years. Chances are that they don’t know. That’s because it isn’t ‘normal’ in the middle of the monsoon. Tar balls normally surface on Goa’s beaches just before the monsoon, when the South-West Monsoon winds begin to blow, create rough sea conditions and churning up the sea.
At present, this slimy muck is continuing to pile up on our most important beaches, which play host to roughly 2.5 million tourists each year. Even as the administration has started, belatedly, to clean the beaches, Director for Tourism Swapnil Naik has at least been honest enough to say that the tar balls are due to an oil spill ‘somewhere’ in the sea, and that he has no idea when they will stop washing up ashore.
Velsao beach in South Goa is the most badly affected; tar balls have piled up around a foot thick, making that part of the beach look like a huge, ugly rock. Yesterday, this newspaper carried a photograph of Sernabatim Beach, which appeared almost as bad.
Tourism Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar and Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira, who visited the affected beaches yesterday, need to devise a strategy to protect Goa’s beaches. One cannot be complacent just because this is the off-season. If this had happened in the middle of the tourist season, it could have caused an exodus of tourists.
The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has confirmed that one of the most common causes for tar balls is the dumping of oil overboard by a passing ship. The lighter fractions of the oil evaporate, while the heavier elements mix with water to form a thick, sticky emulsion that looks like chocolate pudding. The wind and waves stretch and tear the patches of emulsion into smaller tar balls.
There seems to be a fair bit of unanimity that this mini-disaster has been caused by an oil spill. But what gives ships’ captains the idea that they can dump oil or wash out their bilges in India’s territorial waters or in its 200-km wide exclusive economic zone (EEZ)? It has to be India’s slack laws and their even slacker implementation.
Why was the oil spill responsible for these tar balls neither reported nor detected? Protecting our coastline and our beaches is the job of the Indian Coast Guard. But that is the one outfit that has remained significantly silent. India launches its own satellites and has among the best satellite imaging systems in the world. It should be perfectly possible not only to detect oil spills, but also identify the ships responsible for them, so that they can be made to pay dearly for the damage they cause. The tools are all out there. All the Coast Guard and the state government need to do is to get their act together.
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans |
|
| LIFE LINE |
Goa Su-Raj Party has been in existence since 31/08/2000.
|
|
|
