This refers to your article ‘State to send reminder to MoEF&CC seeking solution to tarballs issue’ (Herald, September 15).
It is noticed from the past so many years that each time the tar-balls appear on the beaches of Goa, the main target seems to be ships, and in particular oil tankers. It may be pointed out that ships of today and more so oil tankers are built and provided with well designed facilities to prevent oil pollution. In fact it is almost impossible to pump out oil or oily water mixtures into the sea. Under the MARPOL Convention all ships are required to maintain strict records of any pumping of oil or oily water mixtures either from the ship or into the ship’s storage facilities provided for this purpose. In many countries of the world, often Ship Masters (Captains) and Chief Engineers have been imprisoned and ship Owners have been fined heavily for any evidence of improper records or by-passing of operational systems. In such a scenario, no ship’s personnel are interested in getting involved in any misdeeds with regard to oil pollution at sea.
So much so, that ship’s crew today, do not even dump any garbage of non biodegradable material at sea. All this is either incinerated where permissible or segregated and kept aside for proper disposal while the ship is in port. The severity with which the contraventions of the IOPP (International Oil Pollution Prevention) certificate and in recent years the IAPP (International Air Pollution Prevention) certificate are dealt with, cannot be compared with any other means of existing transport vehicles. Even toilet discharges from ships have to be treated before being pumped out to sea.
Further it must be remembered that almost all ocean areas are scanned by satellites for any pollution by ships. As every ship is fitted with an AIS (Automated Identification System) a vessel causing pollution can immediately be identified at sea. As far as our local coast is concerned, it is continuously monitored by our Coast Guard which has been doing a wonderful service to our Coastal waters.
On the other hand, our coastal states are over loaded with thousands of other small crafts operating along the coasts. All these vessels are manned by crew who are either traditional operators or just plain labour. There are no toilets on these vessels. Open defecation into the sea is a norm. The fossil fuels and lubricants used on these vessels in some way or the other leak into the vessel’s bilges and are frequently pumped out. The non biodegradable garbage from these vessels is dumped into the sea with no controlled disposable system in place. No doubt in the Arabian sea we have numerous Oil Rigs in operation and one should also bear in mind their existence while pointing fingers at others.
A proper Chemical Analysis would help in shedding some light on the origin of the oil which could be compared with the various possible sources. This will make it possible to concentrate on the areas of focus and if not eliminate but at least reduce the pollution that is affecting our coastline.
