UN launches crowdfunding campaign to prevent Yemen tanker oil spill

A United Nations (UN) team in Yemen has started crowdfunding through social media campaigns to raise money to prevent an oil spill off the Red Sea coast of Yemen.

The UN needs US $80 million to prevent the spill and until now, it has been able to acquire US $60 million. If the oil spill does occur, cleanup costs will take US $20 billion.

Using the #StopRedSeaSpill social media campaign, UN in Yemen intends to raise US $5 million through public donations.

 The crowdfunding campaign began on June 13.

The vessel that needs to be repaired is known as FSO Safer and was turned into a floating storage and offloading facility in 1988. Safer holds 1.1 million barrels of oil but maintenance and production operations of the Safer were paused in 2015 because of the war.

Because of the halt, the vessel cannot be repaired to its original state and only be prevented from breaking. UN Yemen intends to transfer the barrels to a permanent replacement vessel and then tow the Safer to a yard to be sold for salvage.

If the oil spill does occur, the ports of Hodeidah and Saleef would most likely be closed off and further worsen the situation of 17 million food insecure people in Yemen and citizens of Yemen would be exposed life-threatening toxins.

Other than the impact on human life, the oil spill would cause major environmental damage. Coral reefs, mangroves in the Red Sea and fishing communities would be massively impacted by the spill.

It would take about 25 years to reverse the damage that the oil spill could cause.