ISLAMABAD, Oct 14: Minister of State (incharge) for Environment Tahir Iqbal on Tuesday stressed the need for setting up of a regulatory body to handle major oil spill disasters.

Presiding over a meeting to finalize a national oil spill contingency plan, the minister cited the recent example of oil spill from Tasman Spirit causing severe damage to environment at the Karachi harbour.

He said a well-coordinated national level action plan, professionally trained staff and advanced equipment should be acquired to ensure a timely and swift response in case of marine disasters.

He said individual organizations, including the Maritime Security Agency and the Karachi Port Trust, should develop the capacity to combat small oil spills within their areas while the national level contingency plan should be enforced in case of major disasters.

A representative of the KPT informed the meeting that they had the capacity to tackle oil spills of up to 1,000 metric tons and that 117,000 litres of oil was collected by the KPT during the recent oil spill.

Secretary environment Javed Zafar said the most important thing was to have the capability to handle oil spills in limited time and the ministry of environment would consult donors for necessary funding in this regard.

He said the communication ministry in consultation with the ministry of environment should work out modalities and identify the organizations responsible for implementing such organizations in future as per the prime minister’s directive.