Oil spill blackens Goan coastline
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 30 August 2010 19:31 IST
Oil spill on Colva beach
More than half of Goa’s coastline, especially the tourist-favourite beachline, is going black as tar balls have hit the Goan shore.
Tar balls started hitting the shores yesterday afternoon and the menace is increasing with every incoming tide. If the situation continues, then almost all the beaches can go totally black and sticky.The reason behind this spread however is not yet known.
It could be the result of oil spillage in the sea. Tar balls travel longer distances and they normally hit the shores during high tide.
But in this case, the tar balls have marked their presence during low tide.
The beaches hit with the black tar balls are prominently Sinquerim, Candolim, Calangute, Betalbatim, Colva and Benaulim.
Authorities claim that tar balls hitting the Goan coast is a yearly phenomenon. But the intensity of these tar balls seems alarming.
Director of Tourism Swapnil Naik, while claiming it to be yearly phenomena, informed goanews.com that the machinery has already been sent to clear the beaches.
The authorities however have not set any deadline to clear the beaches.
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Previous Comments
To the best of my information, coastal currents travel south-east toward coast during monsoons and these tar balls could have been result of collision at JN port (Mumbai) between two ships a fortnight back.
- Kalidas Sawkar, Panaji Goa | 01 st September 2010 18:47
i am not concerned about the tourism in goa, it does not do any good to us.i am concerned about the effect on the enviroment. is there any check on the ships which pass by the goan waters . 95 percent of the ships which pass through indian waters discharge all the sludge and oil in the sea as there is no check. forget the big ships where are the nearly 500 vessels in cutbon jetty discharging the waste oil.
- justino, dubai | 01 st September 2010 03:32
what is NIO doing about it. It they who should report this find first and the reason behind it. looks like everyone is on a monsoon vacation leaving the beaches at the mecy of the good nothing tourism department of goa.
- Massimo, emqon | 31 st August 2010 21:30
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