United Nations: Safer rescue plan has already begun

English - Thursday 13 October 2022 الساعة 04:37 pm
Aden, NewsYemen, special:

 The United Nations office in Yemen confirmed that the preparations for the rescue plan for the Safer Floating Reservoir off the coast of Hodeidah in the Red Sea have already begun.

A statement issued by the office stated that the preparations for the rescue plan for the Safer reservoir had actually begun, noting that the next important steps are the completion of the detailed operating plan and the purchase of a vessel to contain the crude oil in the Safer reservoir.

The statement called on donors to quickly convert their pledges into cash in order to start implementing the first emergency phase, recalling that donors pledged $75 million to transport oil to a safe reservoir, and this amount is from the value required to implement the plan whose cost has been reduced from $144 million to $113 million.  , in order to find a permanent solution to the Safer problem and to avoid the threat it poses.

The statement indicated that there are donors who have disbursed their pledges and transferred funds, while others are accelerating the process of disbursing pledges as soon as possible.

The United Nations stressed: "There is still an urgent need for an amount of $38 million, upon which depends the ability to provide a long-term alternative solution to replace the floating oil tanker "Safer", noting that the implementation of the emergency operation depends on donors converting their pledges into cash.

The United Nations confirmed that the condition of the Safer tanker deteriorated rapidly, and it could collapse or explode at any moment and cause a major humanitarian disaster that would disrupt shipping traffic through the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Suez Canal and cause trade losses estimated at billions of dollars daily.

In its letter to donors who are in arrears in paying their pledges, the United Nations noted: "In the event of a disaster, the cost of cleaning up the oil that will spill into the sea is estimated at $20 billion, which is a higher cost than the cost of the rescue plan."