A high-profile UN operation is underway in Yemen to prevent a catastrophic oil spill
The supertanker, FSO Safer, became a symbol of the need for urgent action to prevent serious damage to the marine ecosystem in an area that is home to the world’s major shipping lanes.
The confined ship caught four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez – enough to make it the fifth largest oil spill from a ship in history.
‘Time bomb’
“The United Nations has launched an operation to defuse what could be the world’s largest ticking time bomb. This is a feature all-hands-on-deck work and the culmination of nearly two years of political groundworkfundraising and project development” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
Lying north of the Yemeni port of Hudaydah, UN officials have warned for years about the possibility that the 47-year-old ship could crack and explode.
The supertanker caught four times the amount of oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez – enough to make it the fifth largest oil spill from a ship in history.
Existing maritime threats
UNDP warns that a major spill from Safer will destroy water resources in the Red Sea. Speaking to reporters in Geneva, spokesperson Sarah Bel expressed concern for the fishing communities in the Red Sea of Yemen, already living in a crisis situation, as the spill would ‘wipe out 200,000 lives instantly“and” the fish market will take twenty five years to recover.”
Describing the operation as the first of its kind, he used caution during this “time of emergency” but assured reporters that everything had been put in place to “successfully succeed.”
FSO Safer has been some 4.8 miles southwest of the Ras Issa peninsula on Yemen’s west coast for more than 30 years. In 2015, production and maintenance of the ship stopped due to the eight-year conflict between a Saudi-led coalition, and the Houthi rebels. As a result, the ship is beyond repair.
The FSO is safely off the west coast of Yemen.
Humanitarian and environmental disaster
According to the UNDP, the oil spill will lead to the closure of all ports in the region, cutting off food, fuel and other life-saving supplies to Yemen – a country where 80% of the population is already dependent on aid.
The UN leader warned that the cost of the cleanup alone will be $20 billion and said shipping all the way to the Suez Canal could be disrupted for weeks.
Praising the cross-UN collaboration of the project he highlighted the “unstoppable political activity” of the project “in a country devastated by eight years of war.” But note that this is “very important in travel”, because the next step with the security of the ship is replaced by a special security car.
The UN Secretary General has called for a further $20 million to complete the project, including the removal of Safer and the removal of any remaining environmental threats to the Red Sea.
