Sri Lanka to seek Singapore assistance on X-Press Pearl Disaster

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka's Justice Minister Ali Sabry on Saturday (26) said he had discussion a with H.E K. Shanmugam, the Minister of Law for the Republic of Singapore on the offer of assistance by the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore in relation the MV X-Press Pearl disaster.

"Some of the areas we covered were the manner in which Singapore can assist the Govt of Sri Lanka to take measures to reduce the risk of pollution from the wreck & also the preparing of a of Marine Pollution Response Plan and also the mobilizing of an appropriate oil spill response equipment to counter any potential bunker oil spill," he said on Facebook.

"We also discussed the possibility of initiating a survey of the remaining cargos on board and also the location of the derelict containers on the sea bed to prevent any threat of pollution," he added.

H.E K. Shanmugam on behalf of the Govt. of Singapore has assured full support in resolving this unprecedented issue, the Justice Minister said.

X-Press Feeders, operators of the container ship 'X-Press Pearl', report that caretakers salvors continue to observe a grey sheen emanating from the wreck; however, it has lessened over the last week.

They remain onsite on a 24-hour watch to deal with any possible debris and report any form of a spill.

A specialized salvors tug has arrived from Malaysia to take over the caretaker duties and drones have been flown in and will be deployed onsite to help with the ongoing monitoring activities.