Photiou to participate in IMO oil spill meeting

CYPRIOT MINISTER of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Photis Photiou today travels to Athens to take part in a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in Piraeus.

The meeting will coordinate efforts to address the pollution from the oil spill that is currently threatening the eastern Mediterranean, and is currently affecting the coastal and marine environments of Syria and Lebanon. The slick poses a serious threat to marine species such as the bluefin tuna fish and sea turtles.

The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) yesterday decided to provide $200,000 to finance clean-up operations off of the Lebanese coast. “This contribution to the international clean-up effort will be used for the purchase of essential supplies,” read an OPEC fund statement.

The worst environmental disaster in Lebanon’s history, the oil spill is currently estimated to be one of the largest to ever affect the Mediterranean. Over 150km of coastline have been polluted, including parts of Cyprus and Syria. It is the result of bombing damage inflicted by Israeli jets on an oil storage unit at a power planet in Jiyyeh, 30km south of Beirut.
The meeting’s objective will be to agree on a common strategy with which to address the pollution. The assembled delegates will work to identify preparatory actions in the wake of possibilities that the oil spill threat could extend to the marine environments of Lebanon’s neighbouring countries, as well as consider the possible financial support that will be needed for the strategy to be implemented.

The coordination meeting was called for by Efthimios Mitropoulos, Secretery-General of IMO, and Achim Steiner, Executive Director of United Nations Environment Program, on August 17. It will be hosted by Manolis Kefaloyannis, Minister of Mercantile Marine of Greece. The meeting will be attended by Greek European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Demas, representatives of Lebanon, Greece, Syria and Turkey, the United Nations Development Programme, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, REMPEC, IMO and UNEP.

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