NIMASA gazettes 12 new regulations to achieve clean ocean

In its determination to ensure clean and pollution-free ocean in Nigeria, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has gazetted 12 new regulations.

The regulations include the London Anti-Dumping Convention, which the agency has concluded its legal framework to enable it cross the legal challenges and barriers that would make it impossible for it to rigorously achieve the aspect of the convention that would ensure cleaner ocean.

Speaking at a three-day national workshop on London Protocol (1996) on the Prevention of Marine Polution by Dumping of Wastes and other Matters for senior managers organised by NIMASA in conjunction with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi, director general, NIMASA, said the agency has also concluded arrangement to procure platforms necessary for the implementation of the above mentioned conventions.

“In the next few months, Nigerians are going to see improved environment. We are going to secure the equipment and platform to implement the vital aspects of the convention. Therefore, the technical assistance and cooperation from the international community, particularly the IMO, is critical and imperative to achieve this,” he said.

He solicited the support of the agency’s regional partners, friends from Africa and IMO to enable Nigeria close all incompetence gap and human capability required to ensure that the regulations are well implemented, saying, “We will engage IMO in some of the areas of technical cooperation.”

In his welcome address, Edward Kleverlaan, IMO representative from the office of London Convention, said the harmonisation of environmental protection measures for ship, marine and terrestrial environmental waste management arrangement was still relatively weak in Nigeria.

According to him, Nigeria has exhibited strong determination to protect the sea from pollution and harm, and has demonstrated commitment to the protection of the marine environment through individual and collective work under domestic and international approaches.

Despite this, Kleverlaan noted that the gap between domestic implementation and global regulatory arrangements in Nigeria was still wide due to limited capacity to implement the activities of such multilateral environmental treaties including the London Protocol, which Nigeria acceded to on October 31, 2010.

Idris Umar, minister of transport, who lauded the IMO for recognising the effort of Nigeria to the global implementation of the London Convention and Protocol, said that London Convention was one of the first global conventions designed to protect the marine environment from human activities to promote effective control and prevent all sources of marine pollution.

According to him, the workshop was targeted at educating the relevant stakeholders on the requirement of the Protocol and its implementation as well as compliance approach as stipulated in the Merchant Shipping (Sea Dumping) Regulations, 2012.