Spilled oil spreads across 1.5-km area

A huge quantity of oil that spilled from three wagons of a derailed train on Wednesday, has spread across areas covering 1.5 kilometres, threatening the local ecosystem.

The oil, which spilled at Chittagong Goods Port Yard (CGPY) in the port city's Halishahar area, has already spilled into  three waterbodies -- CGPY, Gupta and Mahesh canals -- said Monir Hossain, an inspector of Department of Environment (DoE), who visited the spots yesterday.

These canals connect to each other and fall into Karnaphuli river. "We collected water samples from the river to determine if the oil has also spilled into the river," he said.

The wagons, each carrying 15,000 litres of diesel for Bangladesh Railway, derailed and leaked huge quantities of the fuel, most of which spilled into a canal near the yard.

During a visit to the area yesterday, this correspondent found that the canal water had turned black.

Environmentalists warned that the incident will create a massive and prolonged impact on the ecology in the connected waterbodies.

Mohammad Kamal Hossain, former professor of the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Science at Chittagong University, told The Daily Star, "Oil contamination will destroy the food of aquatic animals... Many of these animals will die as the oil will deplete oxygen in the water."

"We will take legal action against those involved in environmental damage after investigation," said Mia Mahmudul Hoque, deputy director of DoE's Chattogram city office.

Meanwhile, locals continued scooping up spilled oil using household utensils for their own benefit.

"I have collected 80 litres of diesel since yesterday [Wednesday] night and sold it at Tk 50 per litre," said Ramjan Ali Bappi, a local.

Mohammed Yeasin, officer-in-charge of Railway Nirapatta Bahini (RNB) CGPY outpost, told The Daily Star that 20 hours after the incident, the derailed wagons were recovered by the railway rescue team.

"It will take some days to assess the extent of damage caused by the derailment," said Abdul Malek, master of CGPY.

The train carrying diesel was running with outdated engines, he added.

Meanwhile, BR formed a three-members committee, headed by Tarek Bin Imran, divisional traffic officer of Bangladesh Railway (Chattogram Division), to investigate the incident.

"We already started our work and visited the scene," Tarek told The Daily Star.

"We will promptly investigate the cause of the accident and submit a report to the higher authorities of the railways," he added.