The Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Kitack Lim, has said that the NIMASA Marine Litters and Micro Plastic Action Plan will provide major support to ensure a clean and healthy ocean ecosystem not only in the Nigerian coastline but the entire region.
Lim made this assertion in his goodwill message at the launch of NIMASA’s Revised Marine Litters and Micro Plastic Action Plan held virtually at the agency’s headquarters in Lagos.
The Secretary-General stated that the world is dependent on the rich ocean environment and international trade provided by shipping clusters and that the protection of the ocean is vital to ensuring a healthy planet.
“Shipping must be balanced with the safety of life at sea, the long term health, and diversity of oceans and the conservation of the marine environment,” he said.
According to him, “Marine litter is a great concern and the discharge of garbage from ships has been prohibited since the 1980s by the MARPOL convention and additionally by the LONDON convention with each protocol regulating and also prohibiting the dumping of plastics at the sea.”
He further stated that IMO, in cooperation with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other relevant international organisations, are striving to implement the IMO Action Plan on marine litters and to contribute to the global solution for preventing marine plastic litters from entering the ocean through ship-based activities.
Declaring the proper launch and take-off of the action plan, Bashir Jamoh, director-general of NIMASA, noted that 80percent of marine litters in the Nigerian environment originates from land-based sources and that NIMASA was committed to the reduction and elimination of unnecessary dumping and improper waste management and to ensure a cleaner and safer marine environment to support a healthier and sustainable human life.
