The debacles of oil tanker M.T. "GOLDEN GATE"
which spilled 1800 M/Tons oil on August 2002 and
thereafter massive oil spill of 30,000 M/Tons by oil
tanker M.T. "TASMAN SPIRIT" in August 2003 at Karachi
Port caused havoc to our beaches and forced residents of
DHA and Clifton to move out due to pungent
smell.
The spill had created havoc not only to
marine life but resident ashore were equally affected.
The both oil tankers were said to be owned by one
company which as per records / sire inspection of vessel
was black listed in USA with poor track record of
seaworthiness.
On both instances port management
was caught unaware as port has limitation to deal with
oil spill, thus foreign assistance was necessitated to
salvage the situation. The MPCD of KPT did its best with
limited resources.
Karachi Port receives
untreated sewerage of city and accident of a oil tanker
can cause havoc to marine life and mangroves, thus the
only way to check recurrence is to equip ports to OPRC
II level and train all staff in environmental
protection. "Prevention is better than cure".
We,
must learn from the past thus enquiry report of
incidents be made public and debated, where we went
wrong. The owners of the vessel having revoked the
arbitration clause as per English law and it is said
that arbitration award has been made, thus document be
made public for benefit of all.
The level of
operational safety and the quality of the environmental
protection in a port is a function of various factors:
awareness and skill of personnel, quality of facilities
and administrative and organisational structures.
Greater emphasis is now attached to protection of the
environment in ports since tremendous damage has been
done to the environment.
There is no part of the
environment that is not affected. There is a wide range
of sources for pollution but activities to fight and
reduce pollution are as yet inadequate. It is,
therefore, considered essential that priority is given
to the avoidance of pollution of any kind rather than to
fight pollution.
At the same time, as the risk of
pollution will remain imminent, preparations have to be
made to fight pollution and reduce damage to the
environment as far as possible. Ports have to cover
items of environmental protection and to assist ships in
complying with internationally agreed rules to protect
the marine environment by providing reception facilities
for the different residues originating from
ship-operation and to enforce national regulations for
the protection of the environment against advance
effects of port operation.
The only regulation
applicable world-wide for the protection of a vital part
of the environment is the "International Convention for
the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973" as amended
by the "Protocol of 1978 Relating to the International
Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships,
1973 (MARPOL 73/78).
This convention consists of
the convention itself, covering basic items as are:
general obligations of contracting parties, rules for
ratification, entry into force, amendments and
denunciation, a protocol I dealing with incident
reporting, a protocol II which contains rules for
arbitration and 5 annexes covering details of pollution
prevention from various sources annexure-I, and
annexure-II, are "Mandatory Annexes".
That means,
any state becoming party to the convention will
automatically be bound to apply these two annexes while
annexure-III, annexure-IV and annexure-V are "Optional
annexes". This means, a state becoming or being party to
the Convention has to declare whether it accepts any or
all of these annexes.
For ports the obligations
to make available reception facilities is an indirect
result of the MARPOL-convention. Only by a national law
that makes the contents of the convention binding for
its nationals and foreign port users, the Convention is
given its operational basis.
In most countries
there are more specialised laws, regulations and
recommendations to protect the environment and avoid or
fight any pollution. Rule making is only one part of the
protection of the environment in a port. The other part
is to provide for the technical means or special
installations to meet the
requirements.
Annexure-I, II, IV and V to MARPOL
73/78 require that ships shall not or only under certain
conditions and in limited quantities discharge oily
residues, liquid noxious substances, sewage or garbage
into the sea: such residues have to be delivered to
shore-reception facilities and ports should provide such
facilities and ports should be free to decide on their
own whether they will charge a ship for using reception
facilities on a case by case basis, including a certain
amount in the harbour dues or make the use free for
ships and pay the changes out of public funds. Garbage
from ships may consist of domestic waste. Accordingly,
collecting services in a port should be set up by
installing a regular collection for domestic
waste.
By setting up rules of procedures and
enforcing technical safety measures and/or
installations, ports and terminal operations, as the
competencies may be divided locally, have to do whatever
possible to prevent damage to the environment. It could
be wrongly taken that damage to the environment is just
caused by different kinds of technical
operations.
It has to be clearly seen that behind
all these operations are people who design, operate and
execute. People who are engaged in port planning and
operation have to be made aware of possible sources of
pollution and the adverse result of pollution for the
environment. They should know how to prevent and fight
pollution in case it has happen. Environmental
protection should, therefore, be included in all kinds
of training at all levels.
