UAE mulls higher fines against polluting tankers

The UAE is considering raising fines against oil tankers and other vessels that cause pollution to its eastern coasts as they head into and out of the oil-rich Gulf, a municipal official was reported on Friday as saying.

Mohammed Saif Al Afkham, Director General of the Fujairah Municipality, said there was a need for stronger coordination between all concerned parties in the country to protect the marine environment, mainly along the eastern coast.

Local newspapers said Al Afkham made the comments at a seminar on marine pollution held in Fujairah on Thursday and attended by representatives from the Ministry of Environment, the Coast Guard and other departments.

“Al Afkham said there was a plan to impose much higher fines against vessels that dump waste and sludge into the sea, causing high levels of pollution to the water and the emirates’ beaches,” Alkhaleej daily said.

Al Afkham also called for stronger cooperation and coordination of anti-pollution efforts among all concerned departments in the UAE.

“This cooperation has become imperative to protect the country’s marine environment against persistent pollution…such acts by the ships are seriously threatening the environment and the UAE beaches, mainly in Fujeirah.”

The UAE and neighbouring Gulf oil producers have been victim to high marine pollution levels because of malpractices by oil tankers and other vessels.

Fujairah has been hit hardest given its location close to the strategic Hormuz Strait, the only gateway to the Gulf, through which nearly 20 per cent of the world’s crude oil supplies pass daily.

In recent remarks, Dubai’s police chief Lt General Dahi Khalfan Tamim proposed

joint exercises among Gulf countries to deal with marine pollution accidents that have become more likely following threats by some parties to strike oil tankers.

Addressing an environment seminar at the Dubai Police Academy, Tamim said the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries always face the specter of pollution because of the spread of tankers in the region and the fact that the Gulf waters are shallow and almost landlocked.

“I call upon regional states to conduct joint exercises on how to face a possible pollution in the Gulf whether it is caused by accident or intentionally especially pollution caused by the explosion of oil tankers,” he said.

“GCC marine environment authorities must prepare in advance to deal with any environmental disaster in the region given the presence of a large number of oil tankers and growing threats from some regional countries or terror groups.”

Tamim said the exercises are needed on the grounds Gulf nations, which control more than 40 per cent of the world’s oil wealth, should take precautionary measures to face “possible threats before they happen.”

“We should not wait for an environment catastrophe to come in case an oil tanker is struck…we should act now because the Gulf has shallow water and its Hormuz Strait is very narrow….this means any pollution accident will threaten the entire region in the absence of winds to disperse the oil.”

According to the United Nations, the Gulf has become one of the most polluted seas because of massive oil slicks, leakage from crude export terminals, pipelines and oil vessels and recurrent shipping accidents.

Many tankers playing the region have also been reported to be dumping sludge into the water after washing their storage tanks in violation of existing laws.

The problem was complicated by the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, when one of the world’s largest oil slicks of more than eight million barrels hit the Gulf waters. Retreating Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War also burnt hundreds of the emirate’s oil wells and dumped millions of crude barrels into the sea.

More than 100 oil tankers and other vessels pass through the strategic Hormuz. Iran has many times threatened to shut the waterway, prompting plans by GCC nations to find other routes for their oil exports to bypass the Straits.
 

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.