The United Kingdom’s role needs to be considered when it comes to compensation for villagers impacted by the sinking of Manawanui last year, said a New Zealand law academic.

The amount given by New Zealand has been questioned and said to be on the low end.

The HMNZS Manwanui sank off the coast of Tafitoala on 6 October 2024, spilling more than 200,000 litres of diesel into the ocean and damaging almost 50,000 square metres of the reef. The villages in the Safata district also had to refrain from fishing for more than five months because of the pollutants in the water.

Since then, the New Zealand government has given $10 million as compensation for the ecological disaster, which was ruled to have been caused by human error.

According to RNZ, former Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa confirmed the New Zealand navy vessel was surveying the south coast as part of security for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) and King Charles, who was staying at a nearby resort.

Professor Paul Myburgh from Auckland University of Technology (AUT) told RNZ that what Manawanui was doing on the south coast of Upolu needed to be considered.

"We know that it was, had basically been called in aid to survey that reef by the UK government, so I would be interested to know what the UK government thinks its ethical and legal duty is towards those villagers. Basically if they had not made that request to the New Zealand navy this whole incident would never have happened," Myburgh said.

Pacific security expert Dr Iati Iati from Victoria University questioned whether New Zealand should be the only country paying compensation for the sinking of Manawanui.

"Given that Manawanui sank exactly around the same time that CHOGM was going on, it drew a lot of attention to Manawanui that perhaps they didn't want to have drawn to it. It drew a lot of attention to the fact that there could be other actors involved other than New Zealand and Samoa," he told RNZ.

The wreck of Manawanui remains on the Tafitoala Ree,f and Samoa's Marine Pollution Advisory Committee was expecting a wreck report in the coming month.

Professor Myburgh said even with the removal of immediate dangers, for example, from fuel, the wreck continued to impact the environment.

"And what is particularly concerning here is that the local villages are totally dependent on that area for their food, for their livelihoods, so I think that in that context that payment of that amount should be seen as being very much on the lower end of the scale," he said.

The British High Commission and the UK's Foreign Office were approached for comment, reported the RNZ.