Sri Lanka, France launch Oil Spill Detection project

by Zulfick Farzan 12-09-2023 | 3:35 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st); A Satellite Based Oil Spill Monitoring Service for Sri Lanka was launched in Colombo on Tuesday (12).

The memorandum of understanding for this project was signed by the Marine Environment Protection Authority with the government of France.

This project will be launched by a French company named CLS.

CLS, a subsidiary of the French Space Agency CNES and of CNP, is a worldwide company and pioneer provider of monitoring and surveillance solutions for the Earth since 1986.

CLS will be developing satellite-based solutions to help Sri Lanka protect its waters with a pilot project to detect and monitor marine oil spills for the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA).

The OSDS project (Oil Spill Detection Sri Lanka) will operate a marine spill detection service offering the capability to identify potential polluters for the Sri Lankan authorities, notably, MEPA.

In July, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal presented by the Urban Development and Housing Minister to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to obtain a satellite-based oil spill monitoring service.

The Economics and Finance Ministry of France has agreed to provide a grant of 601,810 euros through the Collected Localization Satellites (CLS) for this.