Volunteers in Mauritius have spent the weekend trying to contain a major oil spill which is threatening the island nation.
The MV Wakashio, a Japanese bulk carrier ship, ran aground on a coral reef just off the Mauritian coast at the end of July. Last week the ship began to break apart, spilling oil into the pristine Indian Ocean.
The boat is believed to have been holding 4,000 tonnes of oil, nearly a quarter of which is estimated to have leaked into the surrounding waters. A state of emergency was declared by Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, who then asked French President Emmanuel Macron for assistance with the clean-up.
Over the weekend, thousands of students, activists and residents worked to try to limit the damage from the ship.
“We will never be able to recover from this damage. But what we can do is try to mitigate as much as we can,” says Sunil Dowarkasing, an environmental consultant and former MP.
People have quickly created oil booms (floating barriers used to contain spills) out of sugar cane leaves and straw, which they floated out to sea using plastic bottles. Hairdressers in the town of Mahebourg have been collecting hair trimmings from various salons, which are being stuffed into nylon stockings to create additional oil booms.
On the shore, volunteers have been using empty oil drums to collect fuel which has already floated into the shallower waters. Read more from Euronews
Read Mauritius Faces Environmental Crisis as Oil Spills From Grounded Ship
