The dangers of the south Trinidad oil spill posed to the environment have been clear since the first slick was sighted.The images have been shocking. Birds and crabs wobbling, helpless and dying, covered in the petrochemical. Long stretches of once beautiful beaches blighted by a dark and shimmering stain of oil that seems to coat and seep into everything.
But what these photographs and video footage don't show is the terrible stink of that much exposed raw oil, nor do they adequately explain just how much life has changed for people living and working in those affected areas.There has been a serious response to the spill itself, which is to be expected, but it seems everyone responsible has been staggered by the collateral effect of the spill, the lifestyles and livelihoods fundamentally changed by thousands of barrels of oil.
The scale and difficulties associated with this oil spill have brought their own challenges, triggering a top-level Tier 3 response in the National Oil Spill Contingency Plan, which was designed to manage such a disaster.
But the plan seems to have failed to envision the overwhelming impact that an environmental disaster on this scale would wreak on the people in its proximity. This is a situation in which children are unable to go to school, residents complain of an inadequate response to their medical needs and thieves took advantage of the confusion to rob fishermen at Otaheite of boat engines.
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