A team of United Nations experts arrived in Lima to assess and propose immediate actions in order to mitigate the environmental impact caused by the oil spill in Ventanilla's sea area, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Monday.
The arrival of this group of experts was made possible thanks to the Permanent Mission of Peru to the United Nations Office at Geneva (Switzerland), through the coordination carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Oscar Maurtua.
The nine professionals, convened by the UNEP/OCHA Joint Environment Unit (JEU) and the United Nations Disaster Assessment Coordination (UNDAC), are experts in pollution assessment and oil spill response; incident handling and contingency planning; marine chemistry; geographic information analysis and mapping; and humanitarian response to disasters.
The international experts, who are being deployed from Ecuador, Spain, France, Norway, Panama and Peru, will start working immediately to support Peruvian authorities and will stay in the country for about two weeks.
The technical mission will provide advice on the management of the environmental emergency and on the containment of the spill, while making a rapid assessment of the environmental impact and immediate risks, as well as identifying priorities for immediate, medium and long-term action to mitigate the impacts.
In addition, experts will provide technical advice to national authorities in order to reduce the risk of future disasters involving oil spills in the ocean, including methodological and regulatory recommendations.
The Peruvian Government requested technical support from the United Nations to assess the impact and response measures to face the tragic oil spill on the coast.
Given this, the organization activated the emergency care protocols so as to make technical support available to Peru through a mission of experts.
The United Nations System in Peru reiterated its commitment to continue supporting the Peruvian Government and people in this environmental emergency situation.
Oil spill
After meeting with Repsol representatives, Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez pointed out that around 6,000 barrels of oil were spilled.
(END) VVS/RMB
Publicado: 24/1/2022