Environment protection in seaports

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.
(The writer is Ex. Additional Secretary & Director General Ports & Shipping Ex. Chairman Gwadar Port, Member Board Port Qasim Authority Governor World Maritime University Malmao (Sweden)