Kebimbangan untuk Pelancongan dan Memancing selepas tumpahan minyak di Koh Samet pulau di Thailand. Pantai di sebuah pulau percutian terkenal Thailand telah dihitamkan oleh tumpahan minyak membawa kebimbangan untuk kesan kepada industri pelancongan dan perikanan.
Walaupun usaha-usaha yang terburu-buru oleh tentera dan sukarelawan untuk membersihkan Koh Samet, 23 kilometer tenggara Bangkok, alam sekitar bimbang tumpahan boleh menjadi lebih teruk daripada yang secara rasmi diterima.
Berpuluh-puluh ribu liter minyak mentah ditumpahkan ke laut kira-kira 20 kilometer dari pantai Sabtu lepas, kerana ia telah dipindahkan dari kapal untuk saluran paip membekalkan kilang penapis. "Persekitaran semula jadi di kawasan ini tidak akan sama selama bertahun-tahun. Ini adalah pantai yang indah. Saya amat terkejut," kata seorang penduduk lelaki muda.
"Saya percaya bahawa ia mengambil masa terlalu lama untuk mengawal keadaan. Ini telah memberi kesan yang besar kepada pelancongan tempatan. Dalam jangka masa panjang, jika kita tidak segera menyelesaikan masalah ini, industri pelancongan akan menderita," tambah Anuchida Chinsiraprapa, pengerusi Dewan Perdagangan di wilayah Rayong.
Paling teruk adalah pantai di Ao Prao, atau Coconut Bay, tetapi pelancong di tempat lain di pulau itu telah meninggalkan. Pantai ini telah diisytiharkan sebagai zon bencana.
Pengendali platform di mana kebocoran itu berlaku, PTT Global Chemical, anak syarikat Negara Thailand syarikat minyak PTT, memohon maaf dan berkata kebocoran itu telah dipasang dan pembersihan adalah "80 peratus" dilakukan.
Tuntutan yang telah dipertandingkan oleh kumpulan alam sekitar. "Apa yang berlaku adalah jauh lebih serius bahawa apa PTT berkata pada hari pertama," kata Pirom lapis, pengurus program di Greenpeace Asia Tenggara. "Kita boleh menjangkakan kesan kepada perikanan dan daripada pencemaran kimia dalam rantai makanan."
PTT Global Chemical berkata 50,000 liter minyak mentah bocor ke dalam laut, tetapi sesetengah pemerhati bimbang bahawa adalah ‘underestimate’. Seorang pegawai kanan tentera laut Thailand dipetik pada hari Selasa sebagai berkata tumpahan boleh mencecah tanah besar Thailand.
Fears for tourism and fishing after oil spill on Koh
Samet island in Thailand
Beaches on a well-known Thai holiday island have been blackened by an oil spill bringing fears for the impact on the tourist and fishing industries. Despite frantic efforts by soldiers and volunteers to clean up Koh Samet, 23 kilometres south east of Bangkok, environmentalists fear the spill could be worse than is being officially admitted.
Tens of thousands of litres of crude spilled into the sea about 20 kilometres from the coast last Saturday, as it was being transferred from a tanker to a pipeline supplying a refinery. "The natural environment of this area will not be the same for many years. This was a beautiful beach. I'm in shock," said one young male resident.
"I believe that it took too long to contain the situation. This has had a huge effect on the local tourism. In the long run, if we don't quickly solve this, the tourism industry will suffer," added Anuchida Chinsiraprapa, Chairwoman of the Chamber of Commerce in Rayong province.
Worst hit was the beach at Ao Prao, or Coconut Bay, but tourists elsewhere on the island were leaving. The beach has been declared a disaster zone.
The operator of the platform where the leak happened, PTT Global Chemical, a subsidiary of Thailand's state oil company PTT, apologised and said the leak had been plugged and the clean-up was "80 percent" done.
That claim was contested by environmental groups. "What has happened is far more serious that what PTT said on the first day," said Ply Pirom, programme manager at Greenpeace Southeast Asia. "We can expect an impact on fisheries and from chemical contamination in the food chain."
PTT Global Chemical said 50,000 litres of crude oil had leaked into the sea, but some observers fear that is an underestimate. A senior officer from the Thai navy was quoted on Tuesday as saying the slick could hit the Thai mainland.
