BBC – Sam – is revealed by a tox

Four years after the stricken shipping ship caused the largest registered plastic leakage ever, volunteers are still on the shores of Langka, the small toxic plastic pellets of the sand.

It is believed that billions of Norls plastic, as they are called, have been washed yet X-Press Pearl Caraster in 2021Along with tons of engine fuel, acid, caustic soda, lead, copper malice, lithium batteries and epoxy – all toxic to water life.

The immediate damage was clear: the Norls flooded the coastal line, and turned it into white, while dead turtles, dolphins and fish began to wash.

But scientists now know fears that the damage to the environment may be more permanent than previously thought.

Until now, hundreds of millions of Nordels may have been cleared – but the remaining mini -plastic granules have become increasingly difficult to find because they disappear in the sand.

Worse, these plastic pieces are now more toxic.

“They seem to accumulate pollution from the ocean,” said David Megson of the University of Manchester Metropolitan. “Like a beautiful large chemical sponge.”

Nurdles are the raw materials dissolved for making plastic products and not unusual transmission of large quantities in the global plastic supply chain.

The problems on the X-Press Pearl began shortly after sailing from Dubai Port heading to the Klang port in Malaysia, when the crew noted that the container with nitric acid was leaking and erosion of the mineral box. But they were rejected permission to empty smoking, and the container leaks into the ports in Qatar and India.

The container was leaking from acid at a rate of about an hour for at least eight days when it sailed in Sri Lankan waters late at night on May 19, 2021.

I asked the emergency – but by this morning the ship that Singapore was lowering was full.

Despite the efforts to combat fire from the crew, the Sri Lankan authorities and Aka, the fire spread throughout the ship.

After two weeks, it drowned, and its shipment and fuel leakage in the sea about nine maritime miles off the southwestern coast of the country, between the capital, Colombo and Negombo, to the north.

Muditha Katuwala, an environment scientist and founder of pearls, a local NGO who volunteered to help in the cleaning process, which was largely managed by the Sri Lankan state authorities funded by the ship’s owners.

Mr. Katwalaa said: “We started seeing the turtles that were washed by similar types of features … The skin burned signs (and) was peeling.

He says Nurlis on the beaches “like snow”, adding that “it was terrifying.”

The cleaning started seriously. Initially, Mr. Katwalala and his volunteer colleagues “collect 300-400 kg from Nordels” every day.

Over time, it decreased to three to four kilograms in a few hours.

“Nordels was more differentiated, and it was difficult to see when they were buried in the sand over time.”

It was decided that the cost and return rate no longer deserve efforts to mobilize volunteers. The groups stood down, leaving the task for the state organizing local cleaning groups.

At the same time, scientists were concerned about the possibility that plastic pellets – already harmful to the animals you eat by mistake – may be more toxic or polluted than spill or other pollution sources.

Over the following years, they collected samples that could help track the effect over time.

In November 2024, BBC and Water gatherings investigations More than 20 of those samples were sent to a team of chemists who specialize in environmental pollution from Manchester Metropolitan University.

They found that the most highly contaminated is the most burned in the fire, which spoils the toxic minerals of water life, such as arsenic, lead, cadmium, copper, cobalt and nickel.

The team also found that the cells “still revolve around it seem to absorb more pollution from the environment” and became “more toxic”, according to Mr. Megson.

“They will be taken (and) they will transfer pollution to marine organisms,” he says.

The tests conducted on the fish were found near the disaster site – as well as the nearby Negombo Lake – some of which contain the same pollutants that were present in the ship’s shipment and on Nordz.

Some fish contained levels of dangerous minerals – some of which were found in the disaster – which exceeded the safe boundaries.

The researchers say that the catastrophe cannot be deducted as a source of pollution, although it cannot be proven directly that it is the source, because it is unknown whether these fish are eating Nordels, or their number, or whether pollution comes from other sources.

“But in the situation of everything else in this system, there is a really good possibility that it will cause harm to the environment and also harm to people and humans who eat and rely on this marine ecosystem of their food source.”

Local fishermen draw the link to the disaster.

“There has been no fish since then. We had the same amount of fish that we used to pick up,” the fisherman Joud Solanta explains.

“Our life turned upside down. From the extension where the ship sank so that here you don’t get many new small fish at all.”

The owner of the ship, X-Press Feeders Ltd, says, so far, I have worked hard to ensure the best response to the catastrophe and spent more than 130 million dollars (96 million pounds) to remove debris and debris at sea.

She says she also paid more than $ 20 million to the Sri Lankan government for coast cleaning and fishermen.

However, he says that the Sri Lankan government has assumed responsibility for all beach cleaning activities and that it is disappointed by the delay in that process and the ongoing effects that this happens.

The Sri Lankan government says that the amount paid by the owner of the ship – which was directed by the UK’s temporary naval court order – is not sufficient to cover long -term damage, and follows legal measures to cancel the maximum and secure more compensation.

On Thursday, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court ordered the company to pay one billion dollars as a preliminary payment to cover the long -term economic and environmental damage that the country has suffered as a result of the catastrophe – but the maximum is still in place. The Supreme Court of the Judicial State does not have Singapore, where it is located in X-Press Feeders Ltd its headquarters.

X-Press nutrients said he is very disappointed with the ruling and that they review it with their legal advisers, insurance companies and other stakeholders concerned to evaluate their next path.

Professor Brashnste Junierdin – an environmental economist at the University of Siri Jayarandinapura, who chaired a committee of experts from scientists to assess damage – puts the cost of the disaster as soon as possible to more than 6 billion dollars, taking into account things such as burning life, as well as influencing tourism, fishing, and damage from local residents of the unified cloud.

Professor Junierna says: “large quantities of dioxin and pyran were added to the atmosphere and this is carcinogenic materials. Then we calculated that he might kill about 70 people in our country.”

The owner of the ship rejects this evaluation.

It is quoted by the ITOPF, an organization funded by the shipping industry to assess maritime spills. She says that the report was “underestimated, inaccurate, and lacks a reliable scientific basis.”

“Follow internationally accepted procedures in dealing with acid leakage, while maintaining all safety and emergency protocols,” the owner of the ship also said.

The Colombo Port Authority also denied any responsibility, saying that it does not know the issues until the ship reached its waters.

The sea is the lifeblood of this nation. Amazing golden coasts are a great clouds of tourists, and for generations of fish names have fed the country.

But Mr. Solanta, the hunter, is concerned that his way of life no longer has a future.

“Many sell their boats and try to go outside. Many people have been tired. In fact, my son himself, he works with me at the present time. He is also a hunter.

“He is also thinking about leaving the country,” he says. “

You can listen to the BBC SRi Lanka: The X Press Pear Disaster https://www.bc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6rbp

Leana Hosea is an environmental survey and a non -profit water gatherings institution, which is achieved in fresh environment issues and a marine environment.