Tags: Accidents and Tragedies, General News
By Alexander Villafania
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA – It has been nearly two months since the start of perhaps the single worst ecological disaster in US history, yet a solution continues to elude engineers of BP, the company that owns the damaged oil rig that is gushing over half a million gallons of crude oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico.
The oil spill started on April 20 after an oil rig accident caused a rupture in an undersea gusher resulting in a continuous spew into the water. The escaped oil has already covered over 6,500 square kilometers of ocean and has already struck nearby coastlines and killing flora and fauna.
But what if it happened in the Philippines? What scale would something like this cause?
A website called “If It Was My Home” has been monitoring the progress of the oil spill. It used Google Maps to give a visual overview of the disaster. It also used the tracking maps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration the movement of the oil spill as well as a real-time counter of the amount of oil escaping into the Gulf of Mexico.
Citing the Philippines as reference, the shape of the oil slick is placed over a Philippine map. The slick, should it ever happen in the Philippines, will cover huge parts of Mindoro Island, Marinduque, Romblon, and the surrounding waters of the provinces of Quezon, Camarines, and Catanduanes. But referencing the effects in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the slick could cover three times as much area in the Philippines, essentially hitting major coastal areas in Southern Luzon and the Visayas.
The Philippines has had its share of such man-made ecological disasters. In December 2005, a power barge ran aground in the waters off Semirara in Antique. The barge spilled more than 300,000 liters of oil. In August 2006, the oil tanker M/V Solar I sank in Guimaras Strait. It spewed 500,000 liters of oil, causing adverse effects on coastlines of Guimaras and Negros Occidental.
The Seminara and Guimaras incidences are small compared to what is happening in the US but it still shows the vulnerability of the Philippines’ natural marine sanctuaries against oil spills.
These two incidences led to plans to create a National Oil Spill Contingency , which was supposed to ensure that the Philippines can respond quickly to another disaster. So far, the contingency plan has not yet materialized but the country did participate in the 2008 International Oil Spill Conference, which helped outline disaster management for governments involved in oil spill problems. The National Disaster Coordinating Council also has its own contingency measures in case another oil spill disaster happens.
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