ERA: Grounding of oil tankers left ‘very little impact’ on Male’ reef

The grounding incident involving two oil tankers left “very little impact” on the reef of Male’ City, according to assessments conducted by the Environmental Regulatory Authority (ERA).

The incident in question took place amid rough seas and heavy rain on August 10.

Video footage shared by eye witnesses showed the tankers adrift in the waters off the Alimas Carnival, in the north of Male’ City, before one of the tankers crashed into a pillar of the Sinamale’ Bridge, and the other wrecked on the reef.

The tankers continued to drift before sinking around 30 nautical miles outside Maldivian waters.

ERA’s CEO Hassaan Mohamed told Sun that the ERA surveyed the reef to assess the damage on Monday morning.

Hassaan said the area had very little coral cover and caused minimal damage, although a few Pocillopora coral colonies were impacted.

According to Hassaan, surveyors observed intermittent patches of contact, with the biggest impact spanning an area 8.4 meters long and 6.7 meters wide.

The damage was mostly surface scrapes, he said.

“Overall, very little impact,” he said.

Meanwhile, Housing Minister Dr. Abdulla Muthalib has stated that engineers from Second Harbour Engineering Company (SHEC), which built the bridge, carried out inspections and found no structural damage, but only surface scratches – which the company will repair.

The large vessels involved in the grounding incident had illegally entered Maldivian waters back in April, and were in custody of Maldives Customs. The crews were composed of Indian sailors, who had made an appeal on social media seeking urgent humanitarian assistance.

Customs, which has brushed off responsibility for the incident by describing it as “a natural disaster”, is being probed by the National Integrity Commission (NIC) for any possible violations in connection to the incident.