(Adnkronos) – The Italian passenger ship Moby Drea, loaded with asbestos-containing panels, was sighted around 10 a.m. this morning from Marjan Forest Park, while being towed by a tugboat towards the Brodosplit shipyard in Split, where it is expected to arrive today. The vessel is 183 meters long and 26.88 meters wide.
According to the plan, the shipyard will remove the dividing panels containing asbestos, a material that, in line with the standards of the time, was used in the construction of A60 class fireproof ships when the ship was built, in the mid-seventies. According to the specialized website Shipping Italy, the ship is no longer owned by the Onorato family group: it was recently sold to Med Fuel of Messina.
The population of Split has protested in the last two days against the ‘refitting’ of the half-century-old ship in the local shipyard. The day before yesterday, citizens demonstrated in front of the Brodosplit shipyard: local politicians also joined the demonstrators. The newly formed civic initiative Healthy Split has announced another protest for tomorrow at 10 a.m. in front of the municipal administration, inviting citizens to block the arrival of the controversial ship with their boats, in front of the shipyard. The use of asbestos was banned in Croatia in 2006, just one year after the same decision was adopted by the EU.
