MV WAKASHIO INCIDENT UPDATE In Spill Alert 19 we had reached the stage when the post spill clean-up was going well and some tourism areas had reopened for swimming and the contract to remove the stern had been let. Three months on quite a lot has happened most of which has been positive! We have had a fascinating Webinar on 24 February with Polyeco’s Mauritius Country Manager, Kostas Chatzatoglou, who took us through the initial clean up, the collection of the oil held behind booms, the disposal of the booms and the absorbents. You can view the webinar through this link:
WATCH WEBINAR HERE It was detailed information and we all learned a lot from the webinar. This update deals with the strategic, operational, socio-political, legal and financial compensation issues surrounding the incident.
STRATEGIC LEVEL
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gathering of 150,000 Mauritians in Port Louis. These protests continued weekly for 2 months. The latest protest was a well-attended “Marche Citoyenne” on 21 February 2021. This was joined by opposition parties all saying much the same “This Government must go!” It has since responded with a reshuffle of ministers with two being sacked. It is still the largest party so holds a majority. However, their weakness has built a coalition of parties against them so with a narrow majority now have to be more accountable than they have been to date. On a more positive note, a Comprehensive Economic Co-operation and Partnership Agreement with India was signed in Port Louis on 22 Feb 21. This gives Mauritius a $100M line of credit and free trade access between nations for certain lines of products.
The political fallout of COVID and the poor response to the MV Wakashio grounding placed a lot of pressure on the Mauritian Government who were then in their first year in government.
On 1 Jan 21 the Mauritius-China bilateral Free Trade Agreement came into effect. This gives Mauritius free trade access to 8547 Chinese products with a complete free trade agreement on all other products evolving over a 5-7 year period.
The Mauritian economy suffered greatly with no tourism as a result of COVID and the fallout from the MV Wakashio incident. There had been increasing dissent amongst the population against the government which started on 29 August 2020 with a
Mauritius and China have also agreed to collaborate in 10 areas, including industrial development to increase competitiveness; to develop manufacturing based on innovation and research; to conduct exchange of specialists; to have an
The Government have been taken aback by the level and frequency of protest marches against them. This has unified the opposition parties which is making governing harder
