IMO acknowledges 'problems' with ballast water convention
Governments at the IMO have acknowledged that there will be significant problems with the implementation of the Ballast Water Management (BMW) Convention, Seatrade Asia online reports.
The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents over 80% of the world merchant fleet, feels that the type-approval process for expensive new treatment equipment is seriously flawed and shipowners are being requited to invest billions of dollars in new treatment systems that may not always work in practice.
Peter Hinchliffe, IMO Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC), ICS secretary general, said: “It is good that many governments seem to accept shipowners' arguments that it will be very difficult indeed to retrofit tens of thousands of ships within the timeline of two or three years after entry into force as the convention text currently requires. IMO has agreed to develop an IMO assembly resolution, for adoption in 2013, to facilitate implementation to work smoothly.”
ICS said it will continue to press for its proposed solution that existing ships should be defined as those having been constructed prior to entry into force, and that retrofitting should not be required until the next full five-year survey, rather than the next intermediate survey should this be sooner.