The media department of the Ministry of Environment said that together with the Ministry's emergency department, in addition to the National Oil Corporation (NOC), Al-Zawiya Oil Refining Company and the General Electricity Company of Libya (NOC), have been following up the ongoing work to contain the effects of the leakage of one of the heavy oil tanks at the West Tripoli power plant on the surrounding environment.
Officials and companies have both stressed the need to quickly control the leakage, and take all precautionary and immediate measures to prevent any possible spills from other tanks of heavy oil. They appealed to all other parties to raise the degree of preparedness to intervene in the event the situation gets out of control.
Last week, the Public Prosecutor's Office announced the imprisonment of the director of West Tripoli power plant, the head of the industrial cleaning committee, and the head of the security and safety department, due to the oil leakage from the plant's supplies, which the Office said it had polluted the soil and sea water off the municipality of Janzour in a way that endangers human health and marine life as well as environmental safety.
The Office added in a statement on its Facebook page that it started an investigation into an activity that could harm the safety of the environment in the vicinity of the power plant, saying that the investigator took the necessary measures to protect the health of the citizens and boost compliance with international decisions related to the protection of the environment, neighborhoods and seas.
The Public Prosecutor's Office explained that the procedures for inspecting the tanks supplying the plant to determine the causes of heavy oil leakage, resulted in knowing that the leakage was due to neglect and failure to perform the duty of handling cracks in the structures of the containers despite the fact that the director of the plant saw the danger firsthand.