TUESDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2002: "Rescue plans are in place and the countdown has begun to avert an environmental disaster at the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park," Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, said yesterday.

Mabudafhasi said she felt a sense of confidence after seeing that, through partnerships, South Africans were proving that they could respond effectively to an emergency situation.

The key authorities that have been keeping a vigil around the Italian cargo vessel, Jolly Rubino, that ran aground south of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Heritage Park, have decided to pump out the remaining oil in order to avert a potential environmental catastrophe. A final technical assessment would be made over the next 24 hours.

The 31 000-tonne Jolly Rubino is in a critical condition after being abandoned in flames on Tuesday last week off Richards Bay and being grounded 2km inside the World Heritage Site near Maphelane. Mabudafhasi added that the exercise would involve the innovative use of resources in a strategy aimed at preventing further damage to the environmentally sensitive World Heritage Site.

One of the proposed options was towing the vessel out to sea, in order to contain further oil spills before its structure deteriorated even further. "The salvage team was racing against time to capitalise on the fair weather and implement a ship to transfer the fuel on board in order to protect the sensitive coastline," Mabudafhasi said.

The salvage effort is part of a multi-tiered strategy that has also effectively barricaded the St Lucia and Umfolozi estuaries against the pollutants emanating from the stricken vessel. Andrew Zaloumis, the acting CEO for the Greater St Lucia World Heritage Authority, said, "An urgent judgment call to build berms in environmental sensitive areas had had to be made to protect sensitive wetland areas including mangrove forests, swamp forests, prawn nursery grounds, fish nurseries, hippo, crocs and birdlife including unique breeding colonies such as pelicans." He added that concern had been expressed about humpback whales which were migrating southwards through the wetlands park.

Zaloumis said the implementation of a preventative and rehabilitative management plan was comprehensive in puttting in place environmental measures that included the sealing of the estuarine systems, monitoring wildlife, dispersing oil at sea, and shoreline oil absorption and removal. Once the danger of further oil spillage was over, and preventative measures were no longer needed, clean-up and rehabilitation plans would be implemented.

The three phases are:

Phase 1: Preventative measures

• Closure of the St Lucia Estuary by building a 2km beach berm.
• Closure of the Umfolozi River and key mangrove inlets using purpose designed floating booms Protection of the Richards Bay Sanctuary with booms.
• Salvage operation undertaken to remove the vessel out to sea and/or remove hazardous cargo, fuel oil and diesel.
• Physical dispersion of the oil slick by the Kuswag vessel.

Phase 2: Management of estuary dynamics and wildlife populations:

• Pollution monitoring.
• Monitoring and if necessary, de-contamination of birdlife, crocodiles, etc.
• Maintenance of estuary dynamics by implementing breaching procedure to allow salt water flushing.

Phase 3: Ecosystems clean-up and rehabilitation

• Clean-up of oil deposits (labour intensive, using Coast Care, Working for Water and Volunteer teams).
• Removal of berms on beaches and foredunes rehabilitation were applicable.
• Rehabilitation of roads and access rams, etc. damaged in process.
• Ongoing monitoring and corrective action.

Mabudafhasi concluded, "The positive response from the ship owners who are giving full co-operation to the authorities with their crew on standby to assist if required, is also encouraging. The owners' insurance company has agreed to underwrite all the salvage and clean up cost and this for us is an encouraging reflection of the international principle that the polluter pays."

For more information contact:

Salvage: Captain Nicholas Sloane -- 083 6482649
World Heritage: Andrew Zaloumis -- 082 7883000
DEAT Spokesperson: JP Louw -- 0824683401