Kebimbangan untuk Pelancongan
dan Memancing selepas tumpahan minyak di Koh Samet pulau di Thailand. Pantai di
sebuah pulau percutian terkenal Thailand telah dihitamkan oleh tumpahan minyak
membawa kebimbangan untuk kesan kepada industri pelancongan dan perikanan.
Walaupun usaha-usaha
yang terburu-buru oleh tentera dan sukarelawan untuk membersihkan Koh Samet, 23
kilometer tenggara Bangkok, alam sekitar bimbang tumpahan boleh menjadi lebih
teruk daripada yang secara rasmi diterima.
Berpuluh-puluh ribu liter
minyak mentah ditumpahkan ke laut kira-kira 20 kilometer dari pantai Sabtu
lepas, kerana ia telah dipindahkan dari kapal untuk saluran paip membekalkan
kilang penapis. "Persekitaran semula jadi di kawasan ini tidak akan sama
selama bertahun-tahun. Ini adalah pantai yang indah. Saya amat terkejut,"
kata seorang penduduk lelaki muda.
"Saya percaya
bahawa ia mengambil masa terlalu lama untuk mengawal keadaan. Ini telah memberi
kesan yang besar kepada pelancongan tempatan. Dalam jangka masa panjang, jika kita
tidak segera menyelesaikan masalah ini, industri pelancongan akan
menderita," tambah Anuchida Chinsiraprapa, pengerusi Dewan Perdagangan di
wilayah Rayong.
Paling teruk adalah
pantai di Ao Prao, atau Coconut Bay, tetapi pelancong di tempat lain di pulau
itu telah meninggalkan. Pantai ini telah diisytiharkan sebagai zon bencana.
Pengendali platform di
mana kebocoran itu berlaku, PTT Global Chemical, anak syarikat Negara Thailand syarikat
minyak PTT, memohon maaf dan berkata kebocoran itu telah dipasang dan
pembersihan adalah "80 peratus" dilakukan.
Tuntutan yang telah
dipertandingkan oleh kumpulan alam sekitar. "Apa yang berlaku adalah jauh
lebih serius bahawa apa PTT berkata pada hari pertama," kata Pirom lapis,
pengurus program di Greenpeace Asia Tenggara. "Kita boleh menjangkakan
kesan kepada perikanan dan daripada pencemaran kimia dalam rantai
makanan."
PTT Global Chemical
berkata 50,000 liter minyak mentah bocor ke dalam laut, tetapi sesetengah
pemerhati bimbang bahawa adalah ‘underestimate’. Seorang pegawai kanan tentera
laut Thailand dipetik pada hari Selasa sebagai berkata tumpahan boleh mencecah
tanah besar Thailand.
Fears for tourism and fishing after oil spill on
Koh
Samet island in Thailand
Beaches on a well-known
Thai holiday island have been blackened by an oil spill bringing fears for the
impact on the tourist and fishing industries. Despite frantic efforts by
soldiers and volunteers to clean up Koh Samet, 23 kilometres south east of
Bangkok, environmentalists fear the spill could be worse than is being
officially admitted.
Tens of thousands of
litres of crude spilled into the sea about 20 kilometres from the coast last
Saturday, as it was being transferred from a tanker to a pipeline supplying a
refinery. "The natural environment of this area will not be the same for
many years. This was a beautiful beach. I'm in shock," said one young male
resident.
"I believe that it
took too long to contain the situation. This has had a huge effect on the local
tourism. In the long run, if we don't quickly solve this, the tourism industry
will suffer," added Anuchida Chinsiraprapa, Chairwoman of the Chamber of
Commerce in Rayong province.
Worst hit was the beach
at Ao Prao, or Coconut Bay, but tourists elsewhere on the island were leaving.
The beach has been declared a disaster zone.
The operator of the
platform where the leak happened, PTT Global Chemical, a subsidiary of
Thailand's state oil company PTT, apologised and said the leak had been plugged
and the clean-up was "80 percent" done.
That claim was
contested by environmental groups. "What has happened is far more serious
that what PTT said on the first day," said Ply Pirom, programme manager at
Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "We can expect an impact on fisheries and from
chemical contamination in the food chain."
PTT Global Chemical
said 50,000 litres of crude oil had leaked into the sea, but some observers
fear that is an underestimate. A senior officer from the Thai navy was quoted
on Tuesday as saying the slick could hit the Thai mainland.
