President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has advised to tow the fire-ravaged container ship ‘X-Press Pearl’ into deeper seas in order to prevent further marine pollution.

The President has issued these instructions to the Chairman of Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) today (June 01) at a special meeting held at the Presidential Secretariat, President’s Media Division stated.

During the meeting, the Minister of Ports and Shipping Rohitha Abeygunawardena revealed all the details on the vessel including its route from the United Arab Emirates on May 09 to the arrival near the Port of Colombo on May 19.  

The suggestion of representatives from a number of fields, including shipping and environment, was to take the vessel to the deep seas to minimize possible damage to the marine environment as the vessel was at risk of sinking. 

Accordingly, the President had given instructions to issue an immediate order to the Chairman of MEPA  to tow the vessel into the deep seas based on technical facts as well as the advice of the Attorney General.

The President had stated that the decision taken should be based solely on technical facts and not on politics.

Ministers Douglas Devananda, Mahinda Amaraweera, State Minister Kanchana Wijesekera, Nalaka Godahewa, Attorney General Sanjaya Rajaratnam, Secretary to the President P. B. Jayasundera, Defence Secretary-General (Retired) Kamal Gunaratne, Commanders of the Navy and Air Force and the officials of Ports Authority, Marine Environment Protection Authority, NARA and other line institutions had been present at the meeting.