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SCMP Reporter

THE Malaysian Cabinet has agreed that Malaysia and Singapore should co-operate and find ways to discourage the disposal of sludge into the sea by tankers.

   One of the ways is to have shipyards improve on sludge storage and treatment facilities.

  According to Business Times , the proposal was made in the wake of the recent incident of sludge-dumping by Liberian-registered Arabian Sea Monrovia, which discharged toxic wastes into the Straits of Malacca.

  The Government has given the tanker owner, London-based Global Maritime Services, until February 14 to pay the M$500,000 (about HK$1.4 million) bond, failing which it will seek a court order to sell the vessel.

  Malaysia's Science, Technology and Environment Minister Law Hieng Ding said leaving the responsibility of sludge disposal entirely to the tankers was not effective.

  This was because they had to comply with a certain permissible level of sludge allowed by ports of entry.

   Tankers which carried excess level of toxic waste normally dumped sludge into the sea before entering the ports.

  On the other hand, tankers would have no choice but to dump the sludge if the port of entry had inadequate storage and treatment facilities.

  Under the present arrangements, the sludge handling responsibility and assurance of meeting the permissible level lay solely on the ship before it arrived at the port for repairs or unloading cargoes.

  ''We want Malaysia and Singapore to prepare facilities to store the sludge before treatment can be done.

  ''By having such an agreement with Singapore, tankers will no longer have a reason to illegally dump toxic sludge before coming into the port for repairs,'' Mr Law said.

  On average, about 60 tankers are repaired at Malaysian port facilities annually while ships repair in Singapore amount to 300 a year in its four shipyards.

  Mr Law said the Johor state government was keen to make available facilities to store, dispose and recycle waste.

  He added that companies in the ship repair business should not always think of making a fast buck and instead find ways to store the sludge to prevent illegal dumping.

  Meanwhile, port operators have been urged to do their bit in reducing sea pollution by providing more slop reception facilities for tankers.

  Mr Philip Rankin, a consultant with Intertanko, said at a tanker conference in Kuwait that tanker operations, rather than tanker casualties, were the main culprits polluting the seas.

  Intertanko is the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, which represents about 80 per cent of the world's total of independent ocean going tankers.

  ''More oil is deliberately, and legally, discharged into the oceans than gets there by accident,'' said Mr Rankin.

  In particular, terminal operators at the Arabian Gulf ports needed to provide more slop reception facilities.

  Given the lack of reception facilities to enable tankers to rid their slops in an environmentally friendly way, ships continued to discharge them into the sea.

  Of the 25 Gulf oil terminals, only four provided dirty ballast facilities.

  One more will be coming on stream in March, at Jebel Ali.

  Intertanko piloted a scheme about 10 years ago to provide a floating reception facility at the mouth of the Gulf for tankers to dispose of dirty ballast water.

  ''But sadly due to lack of local support, the scheme did not survive,'' he said.



Sludge dump would curtail fouling at sea