When it comes to our polluted sea, the Tasman Spirit disaster was the tip of the iceberg
A LOT of hue and cry has been raised by different quarters regarding the marine pollution caused owing to the grounding of the oil tanker Tasman Spirit in the Karachi Harbour Channel. Subsequently the tanker released over 30,000 metric tons of crude oil into the Arabian Sea, adversely effecting the marine life. However, very negligible or no mention is being made regarding the already existing level of marine pollution that has played havoc with the marine life — fish, prawns, shrimps, crabs, lobsters etc — and has contaminated the food chain.
A study carried out by scientists associated with various prime scientific institutions of the country and the federal ministries, some time back, when the Tasman Spirit was nowhere on the scene, should be an eye-opener for the decision makers. Efforts should be to control the unchecked release of untreated effluents — industrial as well as domestic — into the sea. Various deadly heavy metals — such as chromium, cadmium, mercury, etc., — had been found in the marine food species that are not only consumed locally but are exported as well.
The study, carried out sometime back, is still relevant because the overwhelming majority of industries are still releasing their untreated effluents into the sea, whereas the treatment plants of the civic agency still work as they used to work earlier. So any change, if at all, would only be that the situation would only become gloomier with the passage of time and pollution will further increase.
The study has found out different concentration of heavy metals in different species. Such as crabs were found to be carrying mercury (0.620PPM), cadmium (73.1), chromium (29.5), lead (8.2), arsenic (3.6), antimony (1.9), zinc (704).
Shrimps were carrying mercury (0.209), cadmium (22.6), chromium (17), lead (7.5), arsenic (1.65), antimony (2.5), and zinc (478).
Fish were carrying mercury (0.299), cadmium (2.117), chromium (10.1), lead (7.41), arsenic (4.5), antimony (7.4) and zinc (292).
Lobsters were found to be carrying mercury (0.078), cadmium (3.283), chromium (2.9), lead (1.3), arsenic (1.3), antimony (0.2) and zinc (195).
Various heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, zinc etc., have carcinogenic qualities. They could cause genetic deformities and affect various system and vital organs of the human body such as respiratory system, digestive system, central nervous system, liver, lungs, kidneys, brain, behavioural changes etc. Over 300 million gallons daily (MGD) of domestic and municipal wastewater is generated by over 10 million residents of the biggest metropolis of the country. The city’s civic agency operates three wastewater treatment plants, but they are rarely operated at capacity. And even if these were operating at full capacity, these would still be treating less than one-third of the total sewage generated in the city daily. Also, these plants are designed to carry out only the primary treatment, hence they are not even capable of removing the chemicals that are an integral part of the industrial effluents generated by over 10,000 industrial units scattered all over the city, besides the designated industrial areas — Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE), Landhi Industrial Area (LIA), Korangi Industrial Area (KIA), Export Processing Zone (EPZ), Industrial zone in Federal B Area, and a cluster of heavy industries around Port Qasim.
Owing to “over-helpful” and “ever-obliging” officials of the regulating departments, a negligible number of industries have bothered to set up effluent treatment plants and hardly a few of these carry out secondary treatment of their effluents before these are released to the city’s poorly managed crippling drainage system. A large number of industries release out their effluents into open nullahs (storm water drains) or directly into the Malir and Lyari rivers that after crisscrossing the city eventually terminate into the sea draining all the deadly load into it.
The major polluting industries of the city are leather tanning units, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, refineries, chemical, textiles, paper and pulp, paint, shipyard, engineering works, thermal power plants, hospitals, laboratories, plastics, fertilizers, pesticides, etc. There is a misconception — which has been strengthened by the greedy polluting industrialists, who extend generous favours to the decision makers — that since sea is a very big water body so whatever is put into it gets diluted and there is nothing to worry about. That’s as far from the truth.
The contaminated water that enters the sea is of a different density and its other characteristics also do not match the seawater. It does not therefore mix readily with the recipient seawater. Much of the pollutant-infested waste water flows on its own in the form of sludge to the seabed and gets deposited there. There is chemical reaction going on all the time in the pollutant infested muck at the seabed, and the chemicals are released gradually, continuously deteriorating the quality of water.
The pollutants, including the deadly heavy metals, first of all contaminate the seawater, then the marine vegetation. These are first consumed by the plankton, small green organizms that grow near the surface of water. The plankton consume these pollutants, but do not die. They just store the pollutants inside their cells. The plankton are consumed by smaller fish who in turn are food for the bigger fish and other bigger and advanced form of marine life, some of which are then consumed by the human beings. So the deadly material has not affected the marine creatures, though it is stored in their bodies. With each change of medium — that is from smaller fish to the bigger fish etc — the quantity of contamination increases. In this way the deadly substances get into the food chain — crabs, prawns, lobsters, shrimps, etc — and the human beings being at the top of the food chain are the worst sufferers when they consume these chemical infested food.
Smaller fish that are also contaminated in the process, are also used in the poultry feed, so the contamination transfers into the feed and after it is consumed by the poultry, into the meat and eggs of the chicken that feeds on the contaminated poultry feed.
This article by no means suggests that the Tasman Spirit be let lose and no action be taken against the owners of the polluting ship. The pollution caused by the grounded ship must have made the matter worse as far as our marine life is concerned and the level of pollution must have increased considerably. So stern action should be taken against the ship and its owners, the same way the perpetrators of the Exxon Valdez disaster were dealt with. The company was reportedly made to pay a sum of $4 billion for the clean up operation and to settle the claims of damages. Similarly, a stern action against those responsible for the Tasman Spirit mess, would make other ships take more care while visiting Pakistan’s ports in the future.
A reality based contingency plan to meet such tragedies should also be prepared so that if ever such a tragedy occurred again, we should not be caught unprepared. But the most important step of all, technically qualified people should be posted on technical posts — Director General of Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, Chairman of Karachi Port Trust and many others holding other such technical posts do not have any technical qualification. Their only qualification seems to be that they are “well connected” with the people holding important positions in the government.
So while taking action against the grounded polluting ship, steps be also taken to bring our own house to order, and the civic agencies and the polluting industries are told, and made, to follow the National Environment Quality Standards (NEQS), so that the continuous source of marine pollution is checked, and that things do not get worse than the condition in which they already are.
When it comes to our polluted sea, the Tasman Spirit disaster was the tip of the iceberg 
