NPC allots P90M for oil spill clean-up
Monday, February 13, 2006
By MYRNA M. VELASCOSEMIRARA ISLAND, Antique — State-owned National Power Corporation (NPC) revealed that it is allotting a P90-million budget for the clean-up of the oil spill accident which primarily hit a mangrove area here.
NPC president Cyril C. del Callar said the amount will be claimed from the company’s reinsurance policy and that the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has already given assurance on the release of the amount.
The NPC chief executive noted that the clean-up of the shoreline area is by now 80 percent complete but more work will have to be done within the affected mangrove area, thus the whole cleaning exercise may stretch until April this year.
It was noted that around 250 people have been employed by NPC to do the clean-up, with day and night shifts, to ensure that the process would be fast-tracked.
"This for now, is the optimal number of workers that can be accommodated in the mangrove areas where the current clean up efforts are being undertaken," Del Callar stressed.
The tanker delivering NPC’s oil supply to its power barge in Mindoro accidentally hit the mangrove area last December, causing an oil spill which affected at least 70 hectares of the 236-hectare Cayvilo cove in Semirara.
Del Callar noted that the greater challenge for all the parties involved, primarily the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) which is taking the lead in the cleaning activity together with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is the restoration and the eventual rehabilitation of the mangrove area.
"We’re taking responsibility and rehabilitation of the areas affected will be in NPC’s long-term agenda," he stressed.
Based on the power firm’s account, those affected involved some 600 meters of the island’s rocky and sandy shoreline, and more than 100 hectares of mangrove areas.
"About 70 hectares have been heavily affected and some 30 hectares slightly affected. About 37 hectares of these mangroves, or about 33 percent, have already been cleaned," the company has reported.
The power firm has given word that the clean-up will be continuous, adding that the PCG is even taking a night shift to take advantage of the change in the tide. The process involves flushing the oil out during low tide which occurs mostly at night.
So far, the workers reportedly collected almost 27,000 sacks of contaminated oil, for which more than 13,000 are already in the temporary dumpsite.
posted by philpower @ 9:45 AM,
