Protests Rock Mauritius After Another Day Of Marches Against Wakashio Oil Spill Response

The Indian Ocean island of Mauritius was rocked again by major protests on Saturday 12 September.  This is the second set of major protests following an earlier demonstration on 29 August that attracted over 100,000 marchers.

The anger being felt in Mauritius, triggered by the grounding of the Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned Wakashio iron ore vessel 7 weeks ago and how the oil spill cleanup is being handled, was very palpable in the faces, tone and speeches by the protest organizers.

Video, photographs and social media coverage, including innovative use of drone footage from various media sources in Mauritius including the local newspapers of L’Express, Le Mauricien, and digital media outlets such as Radio 1 and TopFM, reveal tens of thousands protesting in more tightly packed streets than two weeks ago.  Organizers estimated 50,000 protesters attended Saturday’s march, about 5% of the island, with over 100,000 watching live online. The march took place in the historic, coastal town of Mahebourg that had been heavily impacted by the oil spill.

Protests were also seen outside embassies around the world where there is a large Mauritian diaspora, especially France, UK, Australia, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Germany, Italy.

This comes in a week that saw widespread reports of cyber interference in the sites used by protest organizers, particularly Facebook, which is the dominant social media and messaging platform in Mauritius.

Peaceful march

The march took place in the historical city of Mahebourg at the location where just last month, thousands had gathered to assemble home made booms to protect the coastline from the oil of the Wakashio.

On the horizon, the wreck of the stern (rear) of the Wakashio could still be seen, continuing to grind against the 100,000-year-old barrier coral reef of Mauritius that had protected the Eastern coral lagoons of Mauritius for thousands of years.

It was an overall peaceful and musical affair, with many protesters having brought banners, flags, and musical instruments. Bright sunshine shone down on the protests and showed that the strength of feeling against the Wakashio incident, salvage and oil spill cleanup operations.

Anger continued to be expressed at the decision to deliberately sink the Wakashio in similarly good weather conditions and at a location that still has not been publicly revealed.  Within days of the sinking, almost 50 dead whales and dolphins washed up on Mauritius’ shores, shocking the nation and the world.

Many protesters carried inflatable dolphins and signs in memory for the large ocean mammals, that are a familiar sight daily and a critical part of ecotourism in the Eastern Coast of Mauritius. 

A report released by the Mauritius Government on Thursday revealed that only 21 sites were being sampled from around the coast, and not the ocean or areas surrounding the Wakashio (both the wrecked stern, location of sinking or where the dead whales and dolphins had washed up) had been taken.

This is raising a lot of questions about the competence of the over 79 expensive international consultants (and counting) in Mauritius, thoroughness of the surveying techniques being used when much better technologies were available and offered to Mauritius, and the quality advice the consultants are providing.  Serious questions will be asked here.

Earlier reports from public sources showed that all the responders that had so far been sent from international organizations had all been male, whereas Mauritius had had a much more gender-balanced approach to the oil spill response. 

Perhaps it was time the world learned from Mauritius rather than the other way round.

Rights of Nature in the Constitution

In speeches made on the main stage, the protest organizers called for greater rights for nature, more effectively run public institutions, greater democratic accountability and more transparency over the oil spill cleanup operations and rehabilitation plans.

Signs and banners show demands for nature to be included as part of a revised constitution that many protesters have been calling for.

The first female boat captain of Mauritius, Virginie Orange, from Mahebourg, also expressed deep frustration that the promises of the Mauritian Government to compensate fishermen and tourist boats (as well as supporting industries) were not being met. 

She explained how these lower income fishermen and tourist boat operators have been prevented from earning their livelihood for 7 weeks since the Wakashio crashed onto the coral reefs of Mauritius, and Government funding had not been provided to them for over two weeks (minute 54 of this broadcast from L’express newspaper). 

Many of the other protest leaders had been relatively unknown in Mauritius until the protests started. 

Mauritius is emerging from an era of dynastic policies where two main families have dominated the position of Prime Minister, and just a handful of families have held powerful Ministerial positions in the country. 

Many of the protest leaders are calling for a new model of governance for the Indian Ocean island, in ways similar to the protests of Lebanon and Belarus of recent weeks.  

Covid-19 is straining the ability of the stretched civil service and political systems of many countries to cope with additional stressors such as environmental crises. New approaches had been called for around the world.

Backlash against large hotel owners

There was also anger at some of the large five-star hotel chains, who had furloughed staff earlier in the Covid-19 crisis, yet appeared to be pushing to receive compensation for losses in tourism.  

This comes at a time when there was further anger on Friday when it was revealed that as part of the Mauritian Government’s repatriation program for those stuck abroad for Covid-19, they would have to pay $1000 to stay in quarantine facilities for ten days. Some of these facilities are in large hotel complexes. In an island where average earnings are $12,000 a year, paying a month’s salary for quarantine upon their return home is seen as disproportionately penalizing the poorest in the country, and it was not clear who would be receiving these funds and for what services.

Frustration at unaccountable oil spill response

There has also been strong frustration expressed against the oil spill response, and the deep secrecy that has surrounded it.  Over 32km of Mauritius’ coastline has been blocked off and is being heavily guarded by police, as international crews who do not know the history of these areas are brought in to apply cleaning techniques that have not been independently validated by international scientists on these areas of unique biodiversity that are internationally protected.

Intellectual property questions

It is also not clear whether any agreements have been signed between the Government of Mauritius and any of the international organizations over who owns the Intellectual Property from reports generated during the cleanup.

This is critical information for any investigation and would be seen as a major oversight if such agreements had not been signed.  This is best practice and seen in spill responses such as the Solomon Trader in the Solomon Islands 18 months ago, as any true oil spill ‘expert’ would have advised the Government.

It also comes amid deep frustration by local Mauritians with the right qualifications, who have been overlooked for the oil spill response, in preference for expensive international consultants who appear to have been spreading misleading information about the oil spill in the country.

Growing health concerns

In televised comments to national media in Mauritius, the UN’s Shipping Regulator (the IMO’s) representative, Matthew Sommerville, was shown describing the oil as being “just like handcream,” and seemed to dismiss health concerns that were being raised.

On Saturday, a spokesperson at the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a statement to Forbes in response to these comments. In these remarks, the spokesperson strongly cautioned  against a sister UN organization’s health advice.

 “Oil contains mainly hydrocarbons (lipophilic substances), sulphur and even heavy metals, all of which are both acute and chronically toxic to marine and terrestrial wildlife, as well as humans.

 Acute and short-term toxicity: the immediate health risk to humans from accidental ingestion or prolonged exposure (especially those that will clean polluted areas without adequate protection) is irritations of the skin and mucous membranes including respiratory mucous membranes, digestive disorders with vomiting, diarrhea, toxic hepatitis, headache, etc.

Medium- and long-term toxicity: the worst part is that the substances mentioned above are carcinogens that can contaminate the food chain. These substances are toxic with material and functional accumulation. The consequences are devastating for the health system, which will have to deal with an explosion of diseases whose care is extremely costly.”

Carcinogens are substances can increase the risk of cancer in living tissue.

A stronger health response called for

Specifically in response to the Wakashio oil spill, the WHO has mentioned it was taking three sets of actions:

• Issuing guidelines to the Mauritian Ministry of Health and Wellness.
• Provided technical support with a consultant recruited to produce a ‘Public Health Risk Assessment due to the oil spill.’  Following an article in the respected medical journal, The Lancet, by Dr Sima Barmania about the current state healthcare assessments, there is sure to be a lot of international scrutiny on the quality and thoroughness of this WHO-endorsed Public Health Risk Assessment, amid reports that some in poorer coastal communities were being missed out.
• Providing light-touch field support for the immediate term.  This includes providing health responses.  However, it is important to ensure certain population groups are not excluded if they were initially overlooked for a thorough health examination, as reports are suggesting may be the case.

Turning words to action

As many international groups continue to issue apologies to the Mauritian Government, it appears that they are still not listening to the Mauritian people’s calls for greater accountability and action, rather than just words.

More of the same is clearly not a winning strategy here.