Dubai - Oil was still leaking Tuesday from an Iraqi sanctions-busting ship that sank off the coast of Dubai after being diverted by the US navy, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) environment official said.
"Oil is still escaping from the ship and the holes have not all been plugged yet, posing a serious threat to the marine environment," warned Abdul Aziz al-Midfaa, director-general of the environment agency in the emirate of Sharjah.
UAE Health Minister Hamad Abdul Rahman al-Midfaa said Sunday that "efforts undertaken to block the openings through which the ship's fuel was escaping have been crowned in success" and that the fuel leak had been "completely stopped."
But Sharjah's environment chief said that "between 60 and 70 percent of the cargo of oil has already escaped from the ship, and we are closely following the situation, which remains very worrying."
The ship, loaded with a cargo of an estimated 1,300 tonnes of illicit Iraqi oil, sank on Saturday.
Emirati authorities have since been using chemical agents to treat the oil slick from the Zainab, which is lying on the seabed at a depth of around 40 metres (130 feet) and 30 kilometres (18 miles) from Dubai.
Midfaa said the authorities, tracking the slick with helicopters, were also using rubber rings to encircle patches of oil in the water before sucking up the pollution, but he criticised the chemical method.
"The chemical method cleans up the oil quickly, but it leaves traces ... and poses a long-term danger to the marine environment," the expert in Sharjah said.
The vessel, owned by Iraq's Al-Amal shipping company, was heading for Pakistan last week when the US navy intercepted it as part of efforts to enforce UN sanctions on Baghdad.
The navy escorted the 36-year-old vessel to the spot where it sank. The 11-man crew, including the Iraqi captain, were rescued unharmed.
Hundreds of municipal workers were deployed Monday on the hotel-lined beaches of Dubai to collect balls of tar-like substance from the sand, but the situation improved on Tuesday, environment officials with the municipality said.
They said that teams of workers were on alert in case changes in wind direction bring the oil to shore again. The slick has already broken up and become unpredictable, the officials said.
Dubai's electricity and water authority, meanwhile, has taken emergency measures to protect sea inlets of the Jebel Ali desalination plant on which the desert emirate relies for water supplies.
Midfaa said a desalination plant in Sharjah, which was closed Monday to avoid contamination, was reopened six hours later.
"The plant is back to normal but we can close it down again at any time. We have boats stationed near the inlets and factory pumps to analyse the water, and we will take the appropriate measures," he said.