Dibba Fujairah waters and beach clear of oil slick

Acting upon reports of a small oil slick floating offshore, environmental investigators with the Dibba Fujairah Municipality conducted a site visit of the area on Monday but found nothing. Reports in recent days claimed that an oil slick threatened beaches in an area popular among tourists at several beachfront hotels on the Arabian Sea. Engineer Hassan Salam Al Yamahi, Director of Fujairah Municipality, told Gulf News on Monday that despite local media reports about an oil slick, no evidence could be found by municipal staff. "There was no oil spilled in the area," said Al Yamahi at mid-day following the search exercise. "The water along the beach is clean." Checks with hotel staff along the Fujairah coastline revealed no word of any shoreline contamination. "The beaches are clean. We haven't had any problems here for at least eight months," one hotel staff member said. Fuel contamination The new report — although unconfirmed — is the latest in a string of oil-slick reports in recent years in which critics accuse large international ships of dumping fuel-contaminated ballast in local waters. The ballast contains a cocktail of petroleum-based compounds, including fuel oil which has been blamed for leaving an oily residue along Fujairah beaches. In September 2008, for example, a large patch of fuel believed to have been dumped at the massive offshore bunker off Fujairah was eventually washed up on prime hotel beachfront leaving a heavy oil smell for tourists. The situation has repeated itself leaving hoteliers frustrated at some international ship operators who appear to be disrespecting local UAE waters. Pollution threat Technology is going a long way to helping reduce the number and severity of oil spills, said Minister of Environment and Water Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd on Monday. In his opening speech to oil industry leaders at Offshore Arabia Conference and Exhibition 2012 in Dubai, Bin Fahd said all players in the industry are working to maintain a safe environment. "Oil pollution is one of the most important threats to the marine environment in the Gulf region which is characterised by high sensitivity to pollutants in general, and oil pollution, in particular, because it involves a risk of economic, social and environmental significant, even catastrophe in some cases," Fahd said. He said more work must be done to protect the environment as it comes under more pressure from higher populations and industry. "The marine environment is under constant pressure as a result of activities associated with exploration, extraction and processing of oil in offshore fields, and as a result of the movement of heavy oil tankers and merchant ships, and the large number of development projects along the coastal strip," Fahd said.