As chemical cargo ship sinks off Sri Lanka, locals fear the worst

As officials brace for possible oil spill after ship sinks, anxious residents say tragedy a ‘double whammy’ after COVID.

Colombo, Sri Lanka – For more than a week, the routine on the beach at Pamunugama in Sri Lanka’s Western Province, 20km (12 miles) from the capital, Colombo, has been the same. Sri Lankan navy officers arrive in their hazmat suits and start collecting fish eye-like plastic pellets that washed ashore after a fire erupted in a chemical cargo ship on May 20. The authorities are now bracing for the possibility of an oil spill after the Singapore-registered MV X-Press Pearl sank off the island nation’s western coast, in what is its worst-ever man-made environmental disaster.