Video posted by People's Press on YouTube.

P. K. Jugnauth was interviewed by the BBC news presenter Samantha Simmonds.

A lot of Mauritians were baffled by the statement of the Prime Minister as he answered the news presenter as to why the government took longer than two weeks to declare an emergency. His answer indicated that the government relied on the advice of the salvage team, calling them the "experts" repeatedly. Note that the salvage team has been contracted by the owner of MV Wakashio and the latter's P&I Club.

A lot of Mauritians deplore the lack of consideration on the authorities part to involve local inhabitants, fishermen and amateur boaters who know and understand the sea in that particular part of Mauritius. The authorities also seem to have neglected the risk to wetlands in that area including two of the three Ramsar sites in Mauritius, as no protection, no installation of oil booms, was done by the authorities around those areas.

The two affected Ramsar sites are:

• Blue Bay Marine Park (nominated on 31 January 2008)
• Pointe d'Esny (nominated on 16 September 2011)

Furthermore, Samantha Simmonds on two occasions during the interview, mentioned that the Mauritian people are asking for the Prime Minister to apologize. She questions P. K. Jugnauth whether he will apologize to the Mauritian people. The Prime Minister dodges that question and comments about how his government managed the COVID-19 outbreak and complains about criticism from his political opponents.

The interview ended abruptly due to an internet connection failure. It cannot be said for sure whether the connection problem occurred on the BBC's or the Prime Minister's end.

Following the Prime Minister's interview, memes and negative comments on the latter flooded Facebook. I will not re-post or share those comments/memes in this blog post for obvious reasons.

In his press conference on the same day, where l'express journalists were once again prevented from attending & putting questions to the Prime Minister, the latter was questioned by a journalist about his BBC interview. P. K. Jugnauth replied, in my opinion, with a display of arrogance. He retorted:

Mem si li apel BBC, so what? Ve dir kwa?

The Prime Minister's lack of humility did the opposite in calming the anger of the Mauritian people who blame P. K. Jugnauth and his administration for the incompetency in handling the Wakashio shipwreck and oil spillage that caused:

• damage to several hundreds of metres of thousand years old coral reefs,
• immediate threat to the lives of sea creatures (due to toxic materials from the oil spill),
• immediate threat to the lives of land creatures that depend on the sea (e.g endemic birds, turtles, etc),
• long term threat to the mangroves,
• health hazards to local inhabitants,
• threat to the livelihood of local inhabitants, just to name a few.

A last question, at 30 mins 18 secs, that was put to the prime minister was about two press groups not receiving the invitation to attend to the press conference. To which the Prime Minister retorted that there was mis-reporting by l'express. He goes on to say that l'express wrote the opposite of what he said in his previous press conference and I quote him in Creole:

Mo faire conference de presse. Ena la presse ki concerner ki pane inviter. Non-seulment pas donne l'information, mais dire le contraire de saki mone dire. B ene banne la presse ki pou dire le contraire de saki mone dire ici, b mo prefere zot pas vini, mo dire ou franc.

... nous pas capave ena mis-reporting, ou bien bannes faussetés ki p metter, ou p coze banne fausseté par rapport a banne conference de presse ki nou faire, banne cozer ki nou dire, au moins sa ti capav rapporter aprés zot envie publier n'importe ki bétises zot capav publier les autres betises ou zot l'opinion.

... mo fek faire ene conference de presse la, aller alle dire quand moi mo p remercier tou bannes volontaires, mo p dire bannes dimounes ki p vinne donne coup de main et seulment zot bizin faire li d'ene fason ordonner, zot alle dire ki mo p dire dimounes pas bizin vini, mo p empeche dimounes vini, mo pas ler laisse dimounes vini. Enfin!

Although the Prime Minister did not specify which article precisely he qualifies as a mis-report of his press conference, I checked a few articles on lexpress.mu and I am assuming that he was referring to the one titled « Pravind Jugnauth met en garde contre des volontaires nuisibles. »

I quote the article:

Le Premier ministre, Pravind Jugnauth, a lancé une mise en garde contre des volontaires qui sont actifs dans le Sud et qui pourraient s’avérer nuisibles au lieu de contribuer positivement au travail de nettoyage en cours.

My understanding of the text is that the Prime Minister warned against volunteers who are active and whose actions could contribute in doing more harm than good to the on-going clean-up process. The article does not say that the Prime Minister is preventing people from going to the regions affected by the oil spill, as the he insinuated in his latest press conference.

The article contains an embeded Facebook video that covers the whole press conference, which readers can watch to see whether the article corroborates with the Prime Minister's statements.

I quote the Prime Minister in Creole:

Mo bizin dire aussi ki bizin prend precautions, tou bannes volontaires ki p envie donne coup de main, bizin conner exactement ki coup de main zot capav donner, parski pas capav nek vini, nek rode nettoyer, rode tire de l'huile, parski bannes experts dans l'environment p dire parfois capav arriver ki zot cause plis di tort ki zot faire du bien a l'environement.

Donc c'est pour sa ki avec ministere l'environement nous p prend bannes dispositions, parski bizin faire donne coup de main dans ene fason ordonner.

Alors nous pour... deja zot tout conner ki ena bannes restricted areas kot dimounes en principe pas capav nek vini cumsa. Et si nou ti ena pou applique la loi mem b la police ti pour empeche bannes dimounes vini. Mais selment nous comprend ki ena bocou dimoune de bonne volonté, p envie aider, donc valeur du jour quand mem noune laisse tou bannes dimounes vini.

Mais la nous pour bizin mette ene l'ordre. Donc avec l'environment nous p travail, pou ena ene system ki bientot zot pour annoncer cuma pour capav distingue entre dimounes ki p vini et ki pou gagne l'authorization vine donne coup de main, bannes dimounes ki conner ki pou bizin vine faire, et apres bannes les autres dimounes ki envie nek vine guette inpe la situation ou bien vine faire bannes zafaire ki contraire a l'environment aussi.

I highlighted part of the sentence that says the Ministry of Environment is working on a "system" to be able to distinguish between people who are coming to help and people who are coming to do things that harm the environment. I am a bit perplexed here as to how they are going to distinguish that. 🤔

Meanwhile, a sponsored post on Facebook indicates that there is a new volunteers group called Mobilisation Nationale Wakashio and they provided the same Google Form link that initially Eco-Sud was sharing on social media platforms for volunteer registration.

I do not know whether the Google Form is the system that the Prime Minister was referring to.

Upon hearing this, however, something else cropped up in my mind, about how valuable such data, about the degradation of air quality & pollution, could be to fellow Mauritians studying the aftermath of the Wakashio oil spill.

Therefore, I sent an email to the CTO of the Ministry of Technology, Communication and Innovation, to see whether the latter can liaise with the Ministry of Health and get the collected data uploaded on the Open Data Portal. Such data would be extremely helpful to people analyzing the post-Wakashio oil spill damages. Otherwise, the Open Data Initiative would simply be a public show!

Now, I keep fingers crossed for a positive reply. 🤞

If you are wondering about the Open Data Initiative, let's rewind a few years back. 😉

I'll update this post when (if) I get a response.

Although, he thanked the organizations and volunteers that are offering to help and clean-up, he also stated that as per "environment experts" people should know what they are doing when helping or else they might cause more harm than good. He said that the areas having the oil spill have been declared as being « restricted areas » and only authorized people will be allowed access. So far, the law has not been enforced and the authorities have been lenient to allow people to come and help. However, he stated that there needs to be order and together with the Ministry of Environment there will be a "system" to distinguish between people who are coming to help or just coming for nothing.

A lot of people are disgusted by the words of the Prime Minister, especially after a notice in the Government Gazette, published on the 7th August 2020, started circulating on Facebook. Paragraph 4 of the latter notice states:

Members of the public are hereby reminded that where a person refuses to evacuate any restricted area, a police officer may use such reasonable force as may e necessary to remove that person from the area.

I could not find any reference to the Gazetted notice in local news websites neither on the website of the Government Printing Department.

In my opinion, a combination of events and actions have contributed to the people's frustration;

• lack of transparency from the government,
• slow to act despite the urgency,
• no proper plan to help people immediately affected by the ecological disaster,
• presence of the MPs hardly seen on the site at the beginning of the event,
• saying we do not have expertise is not an excuse, efforts count.

Petition

A petition started on Change.org calling the Prime Minister of Mauritius to resign, has already obtained more than 10,000 signatures. The petition blames the incompetency of the Prime Minister and his team for the ecological disaster that the MV Wakashio shipwreck caused in Mauritius.

It works!

Members of Rezistans ek Alternativ started the initiative to make buoys using bagasse and sugarcane leaves. Shortly after that, people from all over Mauritius flocked to Mahebourg to help with preparation of these artisanal buoys. Since yesterday we could see these buoys being made by volunteers in different places on the island, like the Creative Park at Beau Plan, behind the Food Lovers Market at the Bagatelle Mall and the Unicity Park Office, Cascavelle.

The photo posted by Artesia Clicks perfectly depicts the efficiency of these artisanal bagasse-filled buoys. It's an irony against the Prime Minister's statement that we do not have expertise and equipment. Citizens of Mauritius did not sit back waiting for international help, as it appears to be what the Government would have done, but instead as one nation, as one people, they all helped to save our lagoons, our flora & fauna! 👏

Local authorities failed to do enough to prevent what is now the worst ecological disaster in Mauritius. They started putting buoys and barriers to protect the shore only after the first signs of the oil spill became apparent.

Members of different NGOs expressed their disappointment on the empty words of the authorities.

Two nights ago members of Rezistans ek Alternativ made bagasse based buoys and placed them in the water to try to absorb and contain the oil which had already spread in our lagoons. The initiative was greatly applauded by a lot of Mauritians and the next day more people came forward to help.

Terra, one of the largest corporations in Mauritius, announced that they are providing 8 tonnes of sugarcane leaves to make buoys at their Creative Park in Beau Plan. Volunteers were welcomed to give a helping hand.

CIEL Group along with other organizations and volunteers plan to complete 5 km of booms/barrages today.

How can you help?

A call for volunteers was made by a committee, under the aegis of the Prime Minister's Office, composed of the Ministry of Environment and different NGOs like the Mauritius Wildlife Foundation, REEF Conservation and Eco-Sud. Volunteers may register online by providing their name, phone number and National ID Number. They will be contacted by the committee to coordinate the clean-up of affected areas.

Meanwhile, Rezistans ek Alternativ also made a call for volunteers to come help at the Mahebourg Waterfront, a non restricted zone, and that there is no need to register online or whatsoever. Just come & help! 😉

Video credits, Reuben Pillay.

The first traces of oil spill became apparent after about a week. Despite the alarm raised by the NGOs, inhabitants and fishermen, the local authorities seemed to have acted slow in precautionary measures. A clear sign of poor leadership.

The Fisheries Minister, Sudheer Maudhoo, is quoted by The Guardian saying:

This is the first time that we are faced with a catastrophe of this kind and we are insufficiently equipped to handle this problem.

The Minister appears to have forgotten the MV Benita bulker shipwreck and oil spill that occurred four years ago. No lessons learned there! 😑

A report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Programme describes a national contingency plan for responding to oil spills that may occur in Mauritius and five of the important Islets. On page 37 of the report oil spill response strategies are detailed.

Mauritians expressed their disappointment, anger and sadness on social networks.