Who pays for the ecological disaster in Mauritius

Tens of thousands of Mauritians marched in Port Louis, the capital, to protest against the government's improper handling of the oil spill from the Japanese cargo ship "ruocheo".

It has been more than a month since the oil spill happened. Who should pay for the most serious ecological test in Mauritius?

More than 10000 people, including some leaders of the opposition party, participated in the march on the 29th.

According to Xinhua news agency, the protestors, armed with the Mauritian flag and various slogans, accused the government of "being negative" in the follow-up treatment of the oil spill, resulting in pollution of offshore coral reefs and environmental damage.

Mauritian Prime Minister jagnath said that the investigation is still in progress, and he called on the Mauritian people to trust the results of the relevant institutions.

The Japanese cargo ship "rochao" ran aground in the southeast of Mauritius, and all crew members evacuated.

The hull of the cargo ship broke and a large amount of fuel leaked.

According to local media reports, the cargo ship carried about 4000 tons of fuel oil, and at least 1000 tons of fuel oil leaked into the nearby sea area.

The next day, Mauritius declared an "environmental emergency.".

"We are facing a great disaster." The Mauritian environment minister wrote this sentence in despair on twitter that day.

According to media reports, the oil spill has seriously polluted the island's iconic coral reefs and marine ecosystem, making the clear and transparent sea water turbid.

Aerial photos show that the blue waters around Mauritius are being covered by oil spills from the ruocheo, eroding this pure land of rare animals and plants.

The oil spill from a grounded ship has plunged Mauritius into a huge ecological disaster.

The writer Mark Twain once wrote in his work "a journey to the equator" that God first created Mauritius, and then imitated Mauritius to create paradise.

Located in the Indian Ocean in eastern Africa, the island country of Mauritius enjoys the reputation of "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" for its beautiful scenery, bright sunshine and simple folk customs.

After the incident, U.N. Secretary General's spokesman dujarick said at a news conference on August 17 that the United Nations system was making every effort to provide support and help to deal with the oil spill.

The United Nations development programme also immediately allocated $200000 to deal with the impact of the oil spill.

Japan sent two working groups to deal with the aftermath, while France and India quickly took larger actions to help Mauritius cope with the oil spill.

Local people organized spontaneously, and on the day of the incident, thousands of volunteers went to carry out the action.

According to local media reports, volunteers even launched a hair donation campaign to take advantage of their hair's oil and water absorption properties.

They put oil absorbers such as hair and sugarcane leaves into nylon screens and placed them around the sea water contaminated by the oil spill to prevent the spread of oil.

On August 15, the ship broke. The first half of the cargo ship was towed to the open sea and sank to the bottom of the sea, while the second half was still stranded.

The Mauritian police have also launched an investigation into the fuel spill and boarded the "ruocheo" to extract evidence such as logbooks and black boxes.

On August 18, local time, the captain and chief mate of the Japanese cargo ship "ruocheo" were arrested after being questioned by the Central Criminal Investigation Department of Mauritius.

However, so far, the cause of the accident is still difficult to determine.

Despite reports that the ship was celebrating the birthday of one of its crew members before it hit the reef, they changed course just to get WiFi signals.

As of last week, rescue workers have recovered more than 900 tons of oil, nearly 600 tons of solid pollutants and 582 cubic meters of oil containment booms that have been saturated with oil.

However, environmental protection organizations involved in the clean-up said that in addition to environmental damage, the oil spill will also affect the economy, food security and people's health in Mauritius, resulting in extremely terrible consequences.

Some environmental experts pointed out that after the oil pollution clean-up work is completed, the local ecological restoration will take decades.

In addition to doing their best to participate in the oil pollution treatment, the local people also accused the government of slow response and inaction.

They asked the government to explain why it did not do anything between the grounding and the fuel leak: "it was two weeks from grounding to spilling, and you did nothing in these two weeks. Now you know it's time to act, but it's too late. "

On August 28, Reuters reported that at least 40 dolphins died mysteriously in the area affected by the oil spill.

The local fisheries department believed that the death of these dolphins had nothing to do with the "ruochao" oil spill, but it also became one of the reasons for public protest on the 28th, calling on the government to speed up the investigation.

The Mauritian government said it would conduct autopsies of all dead dolphins and set up a committee to continue investigating the oil spill.

Tourism is an important part of the economy of Mauritius. In 2019, the tourism revenue of the country will reach 63 billion Mauritian rupees (about 11 billion yuan).

The incident of fuel leakage makes practitioners feel desperate. In an interview with the guardian, they said that under the influence of the new epidemic, Mauritius has faced difficulties such as the shutdown of tourism industry and the loss of people's livelihood. The accident made the situation worse. "I can't imagine what will happen in the future?"