Leader of the Opposition Sajith Premadasa said today in the Parliament that the American media reported that the Singaporean cargo ship called Dali, which collided with the Baltimore bridge in America on March 26, brought 764 tons of hazardous materials to Sri Lanka.
It had 4,700 containers, among which 56 contained explosives, lithium-ion batteries, flammable materials, and category 9 or highly hazardous materials, and the other 4,644 containers are being analyzed. The opposition leader also mentioned that the ship was coming to Colombo after arriving at Virginia Norfolk port.
He mentioned that if a ship has such materials, according to the ”Basel Convention”, permission must be obtained from the relevant authorities in 4 cases, i.e. import, export, exchange and stopping at the port, but the Central Environmental Authority has not given such permission for this ship. The opposition leader said that this is a bad situation.
The opposition leader also said that an investigation should be conducted as a country about this dangerous situation and how such harmful substances can be brought into the country without the approval of the Central Environment Authority.