The Egyptian authorities lifted the maximum state of emergency in the Red Sea Governorate, after an oil leak occurred as a result of a cargo ship running aground near the coast of the tourist city of Qusayr, while tweeters expressed their concern.
Pictures spread on social media sites in Egypt documenting the leakage of fuel from the ship’s tanks, clearly showing spots of diesel floating on the seawater.
For their part, environmental organizations have warned of a marine environmental catastrophe if the entire ship’s fuel, amounting to 120 tons of diesel and diesel, leaks.
The stranded ship is called “VSG GLORY” and flies the flag of the Comoros Islands. Its crew consists of 21 sailors and technicians, all of whom were evacuated safely. The ship was coming from the port of “Salif” in Yemen, and heading to the port of “Por Tawfiq”, the southern gateway to the Suez Canal.
Regarding the causes of the ship’s grounding, preliminary investigations revealed that the ship’s crew lost control of it due to harsh weather conditions, coinciding with a sudden failure in its engines. The ship ran aground and collided with the edge of the rocky coral reef, causing large holes and cracks in its hull, and it began to partially sink.
The same investigations indicated that the ship’s captain warned that it would sink completely and split into two halves, due to heavy water leakage inside it and its severe tilt.
According to what was reported on the “Shabakat” program, the most dangerous thing about the accident is that the site of the ship’s stranding and fuel leakage is very close to the resorts and tourist villages in the city of Qusayr, and some petroleum deposits have already reached some beaches.
Environmental protection
Egyptians commented on social media about the incident and the fuel leakage on the coast of the Red Sea, and an episode (11/26/2024) of the “Shabakat” program monitored some comments and tweets.
Monica Hanna from the agencies concerned with environmental affairs hoped that “the necessary measures would be taken as quickly as possible.”
As for Omar Al-Daqqaq, he said in his tweet that his father is the ship’s chief engineer, “and they survived, thank God and thanks to him… and they were wasted and I need my voice to be conveyed to the officials… an environmental organization ordered fines against the owner for polluting the environment.”
Commenting on the incident, Shaima Amara called for preventing the crossing of ships. She said, “All ports of the Red and White Seas must prevent ships from crossing. We have waves that rose to 5 meters in the morning and currently to 7 meters.”
According to Mustafa Anani, “attempts to tow the cargo ship that ran aground on the coral reefs off the shores of the city of Qusayr and drag it into deep waters failed.”
As for Ibrahim Ahmed, he wrote, “The pictures show that the ship did not sink and it can be saved, God willing.”
It is noteworthy that the Egyptian Minister of Environment, Yasmine Fouad, went to the site of the ship’s stranding, and directed quickly to contain and reduce the pollution and clean the polluted beaches, to protect the marine environment and reduce losses in the region.
Over the past two days, the Egyptian authorities have been conducting suction operations for the fuel that leaked into the sea, and have deployed large areas of rubber barriers to contain the oil spills and prevent them from spreading to new areas.
