KARACHI, June 22: The wreckage and cargo of a dhow, left unattended in the sea after its crew members were rescued by the Maritime Security Agency, was washed ashore at the Sea View beach on Tuesday morning.

In view of the floating debris and the cargo, comprising hay bales, along with a small quantity of oil, which had been stored at the dhow as its fuel, spreading over 2km sea area, the Defence Housing Authority ordered immediate closure of the beach till Thursday.

The staff of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency carried out an exercise to assess the air quality and level of pollution in seawater in the affected area.

There was no potential threat to human health or marine life due to spread of wreckage or the diesel oil storage of the dhow, as it was localized, officials belonging to different government agencies said, who visited the beach during the day.

A maritime source said that the wreckage of the two boats, which sunk due to rough sea on Monday, had reached the beach early on Tuesday morning. However, an MSA official did not confirm the report, saying that any damage to other boats in the sea was not in his knowledge.

The MSA on Monday, with the assistance of a merchant tanker, had rescued 11 crew men of a Ghana-registered dhow, Al Garhoud, which had developed some fault after reaching about 30 nautical miles off Karachi in the deep sea.

The crew men, all of Indian origin, were safely brought back to Karachi at 10am on Monday. After receiving information about the littering of dhow and its other belonging in pieces at the beach, the DHA administrator Brig Maqsood Hussain, visited the Sea View area on Tuesday and issued orders for taking measures to overcome the emergent situation on a war footing basis, a DHA press release said.

According to a DHA spokesman, the wreckage of Al Garhoud, along with the diesel oil barrels and pressed hay bales caused a mild pungent smell in the atmosphere. Sindh environment secretary, talking to Dawn on late Tuesday night said that he, along with EDO Health and a team of doctors, visited the beach to see the situation.

Quoting doctors, he said their was no health threat for the citizens, adding that the beach had been closed just to clean the wreckage. Talking to Dawn in the evening, a DHA official said that a couple of fuel storage tanks of the dhow were found leaking. We were already in contact with different agencies for recovery of beach and removal of dhow's wreckage, he added

The deputy director of Sindh Environmental Protection Agency, Irfan Tunio, said that presence of hydrocarbons in air near the Kinara Restaurant, was on the higher side in the morning.

However, after evaporation of the diesel fumes in the later part of the day, air quality was found almost normal in the evening, he added, saying that results of seawater tests would be available on Wednesday, while the EPA staff had confirmed the presence of oil some 3-4 feet deep in the beach soil.

The deputy director (coordination) of MSA, Lt Commander Nadeem Tahir, told Dawn that MSA staff had taken a flight to get an aerial view of the sea and beach on Tuesday and there was no report about any oil spill in the sea. To a question he said that measures for recovery of the dhow were not taken immediately after rescuing the crew, as it had already sunk in the deep sea.