(United Nations) A team of nine international UN experts arrived in Lima on Monday to help authorities deal with the oil spill in Peru linked to the eruption of the volcano in the Tonga islands, said the spokesperson for the UN, Stéphane Dujarric.
Posted yesterday at 7:53 p.m.
“They will carry out a rapid assessment of the social and environmental impacts of this disaster, helping the authorities to manage and coordinate their response,” he said.
“The team is made up of experts from the UN humanitarian office and the UN Environment Program who specialize in contamination assessment and oil spill response,” added the spokesperson. word.
The experts “will also advise the authorities on incident management and emergency planning, as well as on marine chemistry, with the analysis and mapping of geographical information, as well as on disaster management”.
The team “plans to continue for two weeks” its work on site. It will also provide “technical advice to reduce the risk of future disasters linked to oil spills”, according to Stéphane Dujarric.
The Peruvian government on Saturday announced a 90-day “environmental emergency” for the coastal area damaged by the spill of 6,000 barrels of crude oil, an oil spill that continues to spread.
The Peruvian coasts north of Lima were stained with oil that spilled at sea when crude oil was unloaded from a tanker at the La Pampilla refinery, owned by the Spanish company Repsol, in the Lima region.
According to the refinery, the accident which took place on January 15 was caused by a violent swell, following the volcanic eruption in Tonga.