Tar balls have been a nuisance for Goa for decades now, but there is finally some sort of solution in sight. Recently, the Goa State Pollution Control Board chairman, Jose Manuel Noronha, stated that tests on the tar balls have indicated that they have a calorific value between 4000-6000 kCal/kg. Anything above 2500 kCal/kg means that these tar balls can be used as an energy source.
For Goa, this means that the tonnes of tar balls that wash up on its shores regularly, particularly between the months of June to September, can now be gotten rid of in a financially viable way. But, there is a matter of how these balls will be collected and also how the State, along with help from the Centre, can work to eradicate the tar ball menace that does destroy the natural sanctity of Goa’s beaches.
It was in 1970 that the then director of the Dona Paula based National Institute of Oceanography, Dr N K Pannikkar, officially categorised tar balls an environmental nuisance, noting that the discarding of oil from ships deep out in the Indian Ocean was resulting in tar balls washing up on Goan shores. This happens because Goa’s shores are closest to the sea route, than those of Maharashtra, Kerala and Karnataka. It is on this sea route that ships often discard the contents of their slop tanks, a mixture of oil and water, instead of carrying it to the ports of the Middle East and other countries where they have to pay to empty their waste cargo. Most of the tar balls that wash up on Indian shores, especially in Goa, are a result of that blatant illegal move.
Tar balls are not just a nuisance here. From the Mediterranean to the East Northern Atlantic shores, all off major shipping routes, tar balls have become a nuisance. But there, the governments are working to crack down on this menace by checking records of ships at each port. Any difference in the contents of waste cargo means that there have been illegal dumps. These checks don’t always take place in third world countries, like India and its neighbours. The onus of catching ships that dump their waste in the ocean lies with the directorate general of shipping. Hence, despite any promises at the state level, it is the state government that needs to put pressure on the Centre to get to the root of the problem.
However, with this new development, at least there is some way to get rid of the tar balls without causing further pollution. Cement factories in Karnataka now have fuel for their blast furnaces. This still leaves the actual problem of identifying the ships that pollute the seas and reducing the tar ball menace in Goa. The NIO have methods of fingerprinting the DNA of these tar balls and matching them with the ships at the various ports around, but that will take a lot of posturing by the Centre and a large amount of funds for this to materialise.
Now however, the state government will have to focus on how to clean the beaches of tar balls and transport them to Karnataka, where they will meet their fiery end.
