Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticised the clean up of a major oil spill in the Black Sea and created a new task force to take over the operation, almost four weeks after the spill began.
Dozens of marine mammals have been found dead since the disaster, which began on December 15 when two ageing Russian oil tankers were caught in a storm off the coast of Crimea.
One tanker sunk and the other ran aground, pouring about 2,400 tonnes of heavy fuel oil into the waters between southern Russia and the annexed peninsula of Crimea.
“What is being done to minimise the damage so far is obviously not enough,” an irate Putin told officials in a televised meeting, calling the spill one of the “most serious environmental challenges” Russia had faced in recent years.
“We need to create a commission, a command centre that works directly, on the spot, that is headed by responsible officials from ministries and agencies assigned directly to the site of the disaster,” he said.
He said officials needed to do “everything” possible to stop the leak.
A slick of the oil was spotted on January 3 off the western Crimean city of Sevastopol, around 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the site of the incident.
The type of fuel oil involved in the incident is particularly hard to clean because it is dense and does not float on the surface, Russian authorities say.
Hundreds of volunteers have been deployed to scoop up contaminated soil from beaches in Crimea and along Russia’s southern coast.
AFP
