Oil has spilled into the sea from a tanker off the coast of Umm Al Quwain in the United Arab Emirates, and the authorities have temporarily closed beaches and nearby coastal areas. The country's Ministry of Climate Change and Environment announced it in a statement on Friday, 23 October, Ittefaq reported, citing Al Jazeera.
According to the statement, the spill was detected by remote monitoring. Residents in parts of Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain then noticed an unusual smell, which the ministry said posed no major risk to public health.
Specialist teams went to work as soon as the spill was detected. Oil removal and shoreline cleaning are under way in coordination with local and federal authorities, and the affected areas have been cordoned off.
The ministry said the ban on the beaches and related coastal areas will stay in place until the technical assessments and clean-up needed to keep the coast safe and protect the marine environment are finished.
Spilled oil harms coastal fish, coral and seabirds, so detecting it quickly and removing it is the main way to limit the damage from such accidents. In this case it was the remote monitoring system that first spotted the oil.
The report is from Ittefaq's digital desk, citing Al Jazeera.
Photo: A beach at Umm Al Quwain (earlier photo), Sam Nabi / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Ittefaq
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