Oil spill threatens marine life

At least 10,000 litres of oil are soaking beaches and killing animals near the port of Mombasa.

The oil spill occurred at the KenGen’s Kipevu Diesel  Power station on Saturday night and has since spread into the sea.

National Environment Management Authority provincial director Ali Mwanzei said they had contracted Oil Spill Mutual Aid Group (OSMAG), a private company to remove the oil and prevent further damage to the ecosystem.

Mr Mwanzei said the company had managed to scoop 7,600 litres of oil; 3,600 litres of oil on Sunday and another 4,000 on Monday.

Though much of the oil was scooped from the sea, the beach area was still covered with the black liquid.

“The sand on the beach has to be removed as it is soaked with oil. Fresh sand has to be ferried in to fill the affected seafront,” he explained.

The oil’s adverse effects on the ecosystem was clear on Monday as a number of dead marine animals such as crabs were within the port side belt covered by oil.

This is one of the most serious oil spills witnessed at the port which hosts a number of stations where oil imports are handled.

Later, KenGen issued a statement saying the spill had been controlled.

The spillage occurred at around 11.30pm on Saturday after a fuel transfer pump failed to stop, causing an overflow.

Quick action by the company and teams from the Kenya Ports Authority, Kenya Petroleum Refineries contained the situation.

“We are monitoring any impact so that we can improve prevention mechanisms to stem future spills,” said KenGen finance director John Mudany, who is also the acting managing director.

The clean-up exercise involved the use of skimmer equipment provided by the Kenya Refineries to separate oil from water and pump the water back into the ocean.

In addition, the shoreline was manually sprayed with a chemical dispersant.  

An estimated 7,000 litres spilled over but 3,000 was recovered during the exercise.