Oil tanker FSO Safer (Source: Reuters)New York (VNA) – Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, head of the VietnamesePermanent Mission to the United Nations (UN), has called on relevant parties,especially Houthi rebels, to create favourable conditions for UN experts toaddress the issue related to an oil tanker off Yemen waters to avert anenvironmental catastrophe.
Addressing a UN Security Councilteleconference on the situation of FSO Safer on July 15, Quy urged Houthirebels to provide practical support for UN experts and ensure they can work onboard the oil tanker until their tasks are completed.
The Vietnamese ambassador also called forcooperation and dialogues between the related parties to solve differences inusing the money collected from the selling of oil on the tanker.
FSO Safer, officially owned by theGovernment of Yemen, has been controlled by Houthi rebels since 2015. It is loadedwith more than 1.1 million barrels of crude oil has not been under maintenanceor repair for the past five years.
The one-time supertanker, built in Japan in1974, is deteriorating daily, upping the risk of an oil spill that would wreckecosystems and livelihoods for decades. It sprung a leak on May 27, floodingits engine room with seawater and threatening to destabilise the vessel andspill its cargo
If the oil spill occurs, it can cause aneconomic loss of up to 1.5 billion USD, and affect 100 percent of Yemen’sfisheries within a matter of days. The closure of the nearby key port of AlHoudeidah for five to six months would meanwhile trigger a 200 percent increasein fuel prices.
The UN estimates that around 1.6 millionYemenis would lose their livelihoods and 8.4 million people would be affectedby air pollution.
“Time is running out for us to act in acoordinated manner to prevent a looming environmental, economic andhumanitarian catastrophe”, said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)chief, Inger Andersen./.
VNA
