Oil slick an environmental threat to the Mediterranean

OIL leaking from a bombed power station in Lebanon is threatening environmental devastation across the Mediterranean.

The massive slick reached the coastline of neighbouring Syria last week and is spreading north, menacing Turkey’s beaches.

Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of the Lebanese capital Beirut at the beginning of the war, spilling an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 metric tons of oil into the Mediterranean, making it one of the worst environmental disasters of recent years.

The spill has already polluted much of Lebanon’s coastline and experts fear that it could hit Turkish and Cypriot beaches — with serious consequences for their tourist industries.

Fouad Hamdan, of Friends of the Earth Europe, told The Sunday Times: “Satellite photos show that the spill has already crept halfway up the Syrian coast, and could wash up on Turkish beaches as early as next week.”

Lebanon’s Environment Ministry has called it the worst environmental disaster to hit the Arab state.

So far only Kuwait have sent Lebanon chemicals to clean up some of the oil spill.

Local ecologists say the oil is especially threatening since fish spawn and sea turtles, including the endangered green turtle, nest on Lebanon’s coast. The turtles usually make the journey to the sea from their hatching grounds at this time of year and the slick could prove disastrous to them.

“Hostilities must cease to guarantee immediate access to the affected area,” said Paul Misfud, coordinator for UNEP-Mediterranean Action Plan.

However, the ongoing fighting and an Israeli naval blockade have made it almost impossible to assess the damage properly.

The government estimates that it will take at least a year to clean up the slick — causing further damage to a fragile tourist industry which has been badly harmed by the recent fighting.

Hotelier Elie Geagea told the Daily Telegraph yesterday: “The Israelis don’t need to kill me with bombs. They have killed me with this oil.”