Introduction

The protection of the marine environment against the impact of pollution with various types of ship-generated waste is overall regulated by specific national legislation and the rules and recommendations in the international conventions for marine environmental protection i.e. the MARPOL 73/78 Convention and a number of regional  agreements. 

The rules and regulations laid down in the MARPOL Convention concerning discharges into the sea of oily wastes residues, mixtures containing noxious liquid substances and solid garbage are explicit and unequivocal. Slop water i.e. oily ballast and tank washing water, heavily oil-contaminated bilge water, garbage and other wastes are not to be pumped or thrown into the sea unless under special circumstances. As a general rule all these types of waste must be kept on board until the ships reach the calling port, and then delivered to reception facilities.

Every ship generates these kinds of waste when in operation and it is therefore important that the calling ports have adequate reception facilities where the waste can be collected and treated in an environmentally acceptable way. An effective port waste handling to avoid “undue delay” for the ships, is essential as well.

The observed problems concerning the continuing ship-waste discharges into the sea, the lack of sufficient/adequate waste reception facilities and initiatives for improving the general situation have been an important issue in most countries, in regional co-operations and within The International Maritime Organisation (IMO). 

Due to the substantial economic development in many developing countries combined with growing tourism, pressure has been put on the coastal infrastructure in general, and the infrastructure development in many sea ports is lacking behind, in particular when it comes to development of adequate reception facilities for ship waste. The ports face serious technical and financial obstacles to establish new and/or rehabilitate existing port waste reception facilities.  

It is well known that the problems related to ship waste should be dealt with on an intergovernmental scale. The regional co-operation between the countries on marine pollution caused by ships is very limited, often due to lack of resources and poorly developed institutions. However, there is an increasing focus on the problems related to the pollution of the sea and especially in the coastal areas, where the majority of the discharged waste accumulates. Obviously the insufficient marine pollution control has an adverse effect on tourism development in the concerned countries. At the same time the revenues from the tourism sector is one of the major foreign exchange earners here. 

MARPOL 73/78 ratification is normally delegated by the Head of State to the Ministry of Transportation who is responsible for the implementation of the provisions in the convention. In the four countries concerned the administration of the ports is carried out in different ways, reflecting the nature of each country. Often is will be partly or fully the responsible Ministry’s jurisdiction to oversee the establishment of adequate and operational reception facilities, according to the conventional text.

Therefore both relevant ministries as well as port authorities are key persons in implementing MARPOL 73/78 and the issue of development of reception facilities should be addressed together with the concerned Government organisations and the port authorities.