Tons of soiled pellets have washed over popular bathing beaches

The Singapore-registered container ship X-Press Pearl, which is anchored off the port of Colombo, started burning nine days ago.

Heavy black smoke is still rising from the ship, and the fear is that 278 tonnes of bunker oil will leak into the sea.

Soldiers from the country’s navy, equipped with protective suits and bulldozers, are now trying to collect millions of plastic pellets, soiled with burnt oil and other chemicals, which come from at least eight containers that fell off the ship on Tuesday.

The soiled plastic balls have washed ashore on Negombo beach, 40 kilometers north of Colombo. The beach is popular with tourists, and the area outside is also used extensively by fishermen. Now it is cordoned off.

According to the authorities, the ship had at least 28 containers with pellets on board, as well as 25 tonnes of nitric acid and unknown amounts of other chemicals.

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