by Playfuls Staff |
26th August 2006
The German government said Friday it was sending a disaster relief team to help clean leaked oil along the Lebanese coast following last month's Israeli air strike on a power plant.[more]
A spokeswoman for Germany's Coastal Command for Marine Emergencies said a three-member advance team will arrive in Beirut this weekend and between 30 and 50 German experts would likely be deployed in Lebanon, probably by the first week of September.
Equipment to be airlifted to Lebanon includes oil booms, skimmers, reservoir storage facilities, pumps, high pressure cleaners and large numbers of rubber boots, waders and rubber gloves, said the spokeswoman.
Following an Israeli air strike on a power station south of Beirut in mid-July up to 15,000 tons of oil flowed into the Mediterranean Sea.
Germany's state-run Command for Marine Emergencies began preparing for the upcoming Lebanon mission immediately after the air strike, officials said.
"We are ready to go," said the spokeswoman.
Norway already has several teams working in Lebanon to help clean up the oil spill.
The environmental group Greenpeace says about 150 kilometres of the Mediterranean coast has been contaminated with oil from Beirut all the way north to Syria.
Greenpeace says about 20 per cent of the leaked oil appears to have evaporated. Most has ended up on beaches and the coast and only a small amount is still floating on the sea.
© 2006 DPA
