Peru: 21 Beaches Polluted By Oil Spill After Tonga Undersea Volcanic Eruption, UN To Send Team

The United Nations will provide a team of experts to help Peru deal with the oil spill. People are barred for now from going to the 21 polluted beaches because of health concerns.

A man walks on rocks affected by the oil spill at Cavero beach in Ventanilla, Peru | Photo: Getty

New Delhi: Peru has declared an environmental emergency in the South American country, after 21 of its beaches on the Pacific coast were contaminated due to an oil spill at a refinery following the eruption of an undersea volcano near Tonga on Sunday.

People have been barred from going to these 21 beaches due of health concerns.

President Pedro Castillo said Thursday they would set up a committee that would propose ways to deal with the crisis, aligned with national environment policies, news agency AP reported.

The oil refinery is run by Spain-based Repsol. The company has said it will come out with a cleaning schedule, engaging local fishermen in the beach cleanup and to deliver food baskets to families affected by the incident, Prime Minister Mirtha Vásquez was quoted as saying.

Vásquez also said the United Nations would sent a team of experts to help deal with the oil spill.

Quoting Peruvian authorities, the AP report said an Italian-flagged ship spilled 6,000 barrels of fuel in the Pacific in front of the La Pampilla refinery. Oil-stained or dead seabirds have been found in recent days, leaving environmental activists worried.

The foreign ministry of Peru said the oil spill had harmed animal and plant life in protected zones spread over nearly 18,000 square kilometres, Reuters reported.

Repsol's La Pampilla refinery is the largest in Peru and it supplies more than half of the local fuel market, the report said.

Repsol has said the Peruvian authorities did not provide a tsunami warning, and that the ship was continuing to unload oil at its refinery when the tsunami waves hit, according to the AP report.

It was earlier reported that two women in Peru drowned after being swept away by the waves.