KARACHI, Aug 20: Environmental geologists and microbiologists at a seminar on Wednesday urged the government to involve local scientists, especially microbiologists and environmental geologists, in oil-slick operations and use oil-hungry bacteria to degrade and consume crude oil in the sea from the Greek-registered oil tanker MT Tasman Spirit.

They also expressed the apprehension that naturally occurring bacteria might take decades to break hydrocarbon components of crude oil, besides other deadly compounds including phenol, which was highly toxic and cancer-causing.

The seminar on the “Management of Oil Spills through Micro-Organisms” was organised by the department of Microbiology, University of Karachi, in collaboration with the Pakistan Society for Microbiology at the department’s auditorium.

The experts further called for avoiding use of genetically-modified bacteria for removing crude oil from the sea, saying it might produce other deadly components by utilising hydrocarbons.

They termed efforts for dispersion of the crude oil spilled from the oil tanker as “insufficient” and called for adopting multidimensional steps for removing the high concentration of oil from the sea.

Speaking on the occasion, environmental geologist Dr Viqar Hussain, informed in detail the chemical composition of the crude oil and expressed fears that if all out efforts were not initiated it would become a national disaster.

He mentioned the oil spills at Alaska and various other ports around the globe and informed in detail how the authorities concerned effectively removed oil by involving experts and scientists from all over the world.

Another scientist, Dr Pirzada Jamal Siddiqui, termed dispersion a costly method and said it might take years and millions of rupees to bring our coast and waters back to the former shape.

Microbiologist Dr Tasneem Adam Ali alleged that the authorities were not presenting the actual picture and hiding the facts regarding the spill. She said that local scientists and experts should be invited to ascertain the extent of the damage and suggest rehabilitation activities.

“We must isolate environment-friendly microorganisms from our own environment and grow/modify them in labs so that they could start degrading a large quantity of the oil”, she said and added that various types, species and communities of bacteria would do the degradation more easily.

She also stressed the need for applying other mechanical methods including the sweeping of oil from the sea as, according to her, the degradation process varies in nature and can result in production of some harmful compounds which may cause serious environmental hazards.

Director Centre for Molecular Genetics (CMG), Dr Nuzhat Ahmed, informed that researchers at her centre were already working on the locally isolated and environment-friendly bacteria for oil and phenol degradation.

“I believe that if our scientists and researchers are entrusted with the task and asked to initiate an oil-removing operation, we can easily manage it”, she said adding that it would take time but would save the local population, environment and marine life besides saving financial resources.

She mentioned the efforts of the government of Kuwaiti to remove the oil spilled during the first Gulf War by using microorganisms, and said it could easily be done by Pakistani experts and scientists.

“ Efforts should be started as early as possible and local experts must be involved as foreign experts also approach them to get aware of the situation and techniques”, she said.

Chairperson of the department of Microbiology and noted microbiologist, Dr Shahana Urooj Kazmi, in her address termed the oil spill at the Karachi port as a wakeup call for local authorities and experts, and urged the government to prepare a contingency plan to deal with similar kinds of situations and disasters.

She urged involvement of relevant experts, use of consortium of lab-modified local bacteria in oil-slick operation and initiate projects to deal with such situations in the future.

Dr Shakeel Ahmed, an industrial microbiologist, also spoke on the occasion.—PPI