A legal team comprising local and international lawyers is preparing to file a compensation claim against the insurer Korea Protection and Indemnity Club (KP&I) for the 2019 oil spill in Kangava Bay, Rennell.
The team includes William Kadi, former head of the Public Solicitor Office’s (PSO’s) Landowner Advocacy and Legal Support Unit, now with Primo Afeau’s law firm, along with lawyers from Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The legal team represents the people of Lughu ward in Rennell, where the oil spill caused severe environmental pollution to the sea and land.
Tony Kagovai, a spokesperson for the landowners and president of the Workers Union of Solomon Islands (WUSI), stated that groundwork has been completed, and the landowners are ready to formalize an agreement with the legal team.
Kagovai noted that the team intends to negotiate with the insurer regarding the compensation claim.
Should negotiations fail, the legal team plans to file a case in the High Court against KP&I, MV Solomon Trader, and Asia Pacific Investment Development (APID)’s subcontractor, Bintan Mining Solomon Islands.
A detailed environmental damage assessment commissioned by the Solomon Islands Government revealed significant ecological impacts and economic losses due to the grounding of the MV Solomon Trader and the subsequent oil spill.
These losses are estimated between $112 million (US$14 million) and $304.6 million (US$38 million).
Attorney General John Muria Junior stated in 2022 that his office had submitted a multimillion-dollar claim to KP&I.
This action followed the Solomon Islands’ ratification of the International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Oil Pollution Damage (the ‘Bunkers Convention’) in 2021, which was prompted by the February 2019 grounding of the Hong Kong-based MV Solomon Trader.
The oil spill resulted in more than 300 tonnes of heavy fuel oil leaking into the waters of Kangava Bay.
According to an ABC leaked report, the grounding caused the direct destruction of over 10,000 square metres of reef and more than 4,000 square metres of lagoon habitat.
Additionally, nearly 30,000 square metres of lagoon habitat were exposed to heavy fuel oil in the weeks following the spill.
Rennell Island is recognized as a biodiversity hotspot, with the eastern half designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1998.
However, pressures from logging, mining, and invasive species have led to its designation as a site “in danger.”
The majority of the western half of Rennell Island was leased to Asia Pacific Investment and Development Ltd (APID) for bauxite mining operations in 2015.
APID subcontracted the mining activities to Bintan Mining Solomon Islands, which exported approximately 300,000 tonnes of bauxite ore per month across 34 shipments.
The environmental damage assessment estimates losses between $19 million and $51 million, depending on the natural recovery rate and rehabilitation efforts.
If no rehabilitation is undertaken, recovery could take up to 130 years.
An active rehabilitation program could reduce this timeframe to 50 years.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
Solomon Star, Honiara
