On 20 May 2021, the Singapore-flagged MV Xpress Pearl vessel caught fire in Sri Lankan national waters and has since been stranded/sinking. At the time of the fire, the vessel was carrying a cargo of 1,486 containers, 81 of which were dangerous goods containers (including 25 tonnes of Nitric Acid and containers of plastic pellets or nurdles), in addition to 322 tons of fuel oil. It is understood that severe marine and air pollution has already occurred, with substantial residual risk, particularly of an oil spill. Large quantities of nurdles from the destroyed containers are being washed ashore and littering the beaches from Negombo to Kalutara. Cleanup operations involving some 1,000 volunteers are ongoing. The National Oil Spill Contingency Plan has been activated. The Marine Environmental Pollution Authority (MEPA) is in charge of incident management, in collaboration with other key stakeholders.

The Disasters Charter has been activated, with the Disaster Management Centre of Sri Lanka in the lead. Products are published at this link: https://disasterscharter.org/ru/web/guest/activations/-/article/oil-spill-in-sri-lanka-activation-715-

On 4^th June, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka requested United Nations assistance in the following areas (see attached letter):

• Satellite images of polluted areas;
• Expert assistance to assess the damages and locate loss containers from the ship which may be deposited at the sea bed;
• Assess the economic loss occurred due to the incident;
• Assess the long-term impact to the marine ecosystem and endangered species (turtles);
• Oil spill trajectory modelling;
• Oil spill and chemical spills combat equipment.

In response to this request and in coordination with the UN Resident Coordinator and OCHA/UNEP Regional Offices, the UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit is deploying a team of four to support in assessing the environmental and human impacts of any actual or potential contamination and advising on mitigation, remediation and recovery measures. The team composition is attached. 

The mission focal point in Geneva is Margherita Fanchiotti, Focal Point for Response, UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (+41766910859, fanchiotti@un.org).