Marine experts fault African ports over pollution

Ports in the East and Southern Africa region lack the capacity to deal with ship waste, oil spill, ballast water management, dredging and disposal of dredged materials, marine experts have said.

African ports have not developed sufficient mechanisms to address challenges of marine environment, Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) secretary general Jerome Ntibarekerwa said.

Other environment challenges include air pollution, traffic congestion, effluent discharge to the sea and hazardous cargo, he said Sunday.

“Most of the ports are also located close to urban areas and have the challenges of dealing with pollution from the cities. They are confronted with common environmental issues which are trans-boundary in nature,” he said.

The ports, like others in the world are obliged to deal with environmental issues generated from shipping and comply with international and national regulations but they lack capacity.

PMAESA is hosting a three-day marine environment workshop in Mombasa starting Monday to spearhead the adoption of a common African Green Port initiative.

 “We have partnered with the Kenya Government and the Ports Environment Network Africa (PENAF) to help port managers develop a common strategy for the continent to achieve universally accepted standards,” Mr Ntibarekerwa said.

Although African countries have adopted international convention on marine pollution, they have not put in place enough mechanisms to enforce them. In Kenya for instance, a maritime law was only enacted last year and has not yet been fully operationalised.

The conference is a culmination of more than a year collaboration with regional and international experts on how to launch African port environment initiative, Ntibarekerwa said.

“For a long time, environmental concerns have been relegated to the back-burner within the region where priority has always been given to operational efficiency in moving cargo,” he said.

An African Green Port initiative will be launched in December this year by all African countries during the next Pan African Association Ports Cooperation (PAPC) meeting which will be held in Arusha.

The African Green Port initiative will set up a common programme for Africa that will implement environmental issues in the African Union Maritime Charter. The initiative will have a permanent network and will have a secretariat.

PMAESA entered into a partnership with EcoPorts Foundation of Europe last year to initiate a regional environmental support strategy to prevent high marine pollution in member countries’ coastal strips.
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