A meeting to brief three international technical experts who are here to help assess the impact on the environment caused by the MV X-press Pearl was organised by the Foreign Ministry last week.
They were briefed on the current ground situation and the action taken by the relevant stakeholder agencies so far.
The technical experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are funded by the ECHO, the emergency arm of EU funding.
The team comprises Stephane Le Floch, an expert on oil and HNS (hazardous and noxious substances) has been deployed to emergencies, HNS and marine litter expertise Camille La Croix and Luigi Alcaro, specialised in environmental impact assessment following oil and HNS spills also with previous deployment experience.
The meeting was chaired by Director General, Ocean Affairs, Environment and Climate Change Hasanthi Urugodawatte Dissanayake together with UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka Hanaa Singer Hamdy.
The meeting paved the way to understand the mandates of the agencies in relation to environmental damages connected to the disaster and the role of the agencies and initial discussions on how the 03 experts could contribute to support the process with recommendations on future action to be taken by the key stakeholder agencies.
Participating stakeholder agencies included senior officials from the State Ministry of Urban Development, Coast Conservation, Waste Disposal and Community Cleanliness, Marine Environmental Protection Authority(MEPA), Sri Lanka Navy, Sri Lanka Coast Guard, National Aquatic Resources Research and Development Agency (NARA), Central Environmental Authority (CEA), Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), Merchant Shipping Secretariat, Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA), Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, Ministry of Environment, Justice Ministry, Attorney General’s Department, as well as UN Office in Colombo and Asian Development Bank, European Union and several experts from the team established by MEPA to assess the ecological damage caused by the disaster.
The experts would be working closely with MEPA and other government agencies such as NARA, Ministry of Environment, CEA and the DWC in the coming days.