Despite the reassuring speech of the authorities on the absence of diesel leaks since the sinking of the boat Xelo off the Gulf of Gabes on Saturday, civil society and fishermen are worried. The ship was carrying 750 tons of diesel, any leak could be fatal for marine biodiversity, already very polluted in the region.
With our special correspondent in Gabès, Lilia Blaise
On the beach of Ghannouch a few meters from the company called the chemical group, the fishermen look at the horizon. We can see in the distance the military boats that surround the submerged wreck of the Xelo ship. It sank over two days with its cargo : 750 tonnes of diesel which must now be extracted with care to avoid an environmental catastrophe.
Lahib, a fisherman, he fears the worst. ” If ever there is a leak, all I have to do is take my nets and burn my boat and become a beggar. It is our sea and if it is still polluted, we will no longer live from it. The sea of Gabes is already very polluted so this kind of disaster would be terrible. »
A sea already polluted by discharges of phosphogypsum, a product dangerous for biodiversity, of which nearly 4 million tonnes are dumped into the sea each year. Kheyreddine Debaya has been denouncing this problem for years with the Stop Pollution movement. “ Perhaps this incident with the freighter will make people aware of the extent of the environmental disaster in Gabès. We have ten times more toxicity in the amount of phosphogypsum that goes into the sea every day. So hopefully that will wake people up a bit in relation to the environment. »
The Tunisian authorities have set up booms around the Xelo to anticipate a possible leak, but they are still waiting for better weather conditions to be able to extract the diesel.