COLOMBO – A US-funded five-day Oil Spill Response Workshop and Exercise to help Sri Lanka strengthen its ability to respond to maritime accidents was launched on Monday (6).
Organized by the US embassy in Sri Lanka, in coordination with the Sri Lankan Navy, the Sri Lankan Coast Guard and twelve other Sri Lankan agencies responsible for environmental conservation and disaster response, the workshop includes trainings on how to quickly and effectively respond to disasters at sea, how to measure and minimize environmental damage resulting from oil spills, and how to keep first responders safe during disaster response operations.
US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Julie Chung, describing the working as just one example of her country’s ongoing commitment to environmental conservation in Sri Lanka, said, “By working closely with our Sri Lankan partners in government and civil society, we aim to bolster Sri Lanka’s disaster response and environmental management capacity by providing local organizations with the resources and skills they need to keep marine ecosystems pristine.”
The workshop, a statement from the US Embassy in Sri Lanka said, is in addition to a previous US-funded training that was organized in response to the X-Press Pearl fire in May 2021, one of the worst environmental disasters in Sri Lankan history.
It also noted that oil spill response was just one sector of US Indo-Pacific Command’s Environmental Security Program, which is funding the workshop. Other areas of expertise include illegal fishing mitigation, coastal zone management, and biodiversity conservation, it added.
-ENCL