Sri Lanka Investigates Corruption After X-Press Pearl Disaster and Plastic Spill Cleanup Delay

The government of Sri Lanka is launching a new investigation into alleged mismanagement and corruption following the devastating fire on the container ship X-Press Pearl, which resulted in the world’s largest plastic spill off the country’s west coast. The spill of quarter-inch pellets covered the beaches around Colombo, leaving them up to a meter deep in partially burned plastic. Even after the monsoon season, drifts of plastic continue to wash ashore, with scientists predicting that the marine ecosystem around Colombo will take years to recover.

During the presidency of Ranil Wickremesinghe from 2022-23, the government accepted a small compensation payment of about $10 million in Sri Lankan rupees from the ship’s P&I club. The former head of the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources raised concerns about the payment being in rupees, as it could make it easier for the money to be misappropriated for corrupt purposes. Additionally, the government did not file a legal claim for damages for two years under Wickremesinghe’s leadership and chose a court in Singapore, rather than Sri Lanka, as the venue for the lawsuit, potentially limiting compensation to just $25 million.

The former head of the Sri Lanka Marine Environmental Protection Authority has accused Wickremesinghe’s attorney general of delaying the lawsuit process, alleging that government lawyers hindered the case prepared by the nation’s own environmental regulator. A parliamentary inquiry in September concluded that delays in legal proceedings and lack of coordination between government agencies worsened the environmental and economic damage caused by the disaster. Wickremesinghe’s reelection bid in September was unsuccessful, with the newly elected president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, promising a thorough investigation into the disaster’s handling and allegations of corruption in the regulatory response.

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