A ship carrying a dangerous liquid has arrived at the Gadani shipbreakingyard despite an explicit warning by Interpol.

According to the details, the ship containing 1,500 tonnes of mercury mixedwith oil reached the Gadani shipbreaking yard even though Interpol hadissued a warning about it and had asked the Federal Investigation Agency(FIA) to bar the ship from entering Pakistan.

The ship was denied entry to Bangladesh and India owing to the hazardousliquid inside it that poses a serious threat to the environment and hasirreversible toxic effects on health.——————————

The name of the ship was changed from the ‘FS Ordient’ to ‘Cherish’ inMumbai, after which it reached Karachi on 21 April. It has been anchored atthe Gadani shipbreaking yard, and work to dismantle it is underway.

A news report revealed that “The owners of the ship had succeeded to bringit to Gadani after obtaining permission from the Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) without getting the required approval from the concerneddepartments”.

The report further claimed that after the warning letter from Interpol, theMinistry of Environment and three other federal ministries had exchangedletters on the matter.

The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (PMSA), the EPA Balochistan, andCustoms had been responsible for stopping the entry of the ship into thecountry.——————————

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According to the report, the news about the arrival of Cherish was sharedon an official Facebook page, but when officials were asked to confirm thenews, they stopped the work on the shipbreaking yard while the plot wherethe ship was anchored was sealed by EPA Balochistan.

The concerned officials have refused to answer why the ship with thedangerous contents was allowed to anchor at the yard despite Interpol’swarning.

Source:link