Ghana: Let’s Work Together to Protect Our Marine Environment – Dr Bawumia Urges African Countries

press release

Coastal States abutting the Atlantic Ocean have been urged to vigorously enforce the framework guiding shipping standards and work to improve maritime safety to help eliminate sub-standard ships in the region.

Ghana’s Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who made the call, noted that with an estimated 90% of African imports and exports conducted by sea transport, issues of maritime safety and marine pollution were critical and deserved all the attention they could garner.

He was addressing the opening ceremony of the Third Ministerial Conference of the Abuja MoU on Port State Control for West and Central African countries which took place in Accra on the theme: “Tightening the net–Regional co-operation to eliminate sub-standard shipping”.

The Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control for West and Central African Region, generally referred to as Abuja MoU, is one of the 9 regional MoUs and 1 national MoU established pursuant to IMO Resolution A.682 (17) of 1991.

It was established on October 22, 1999 as an inter-governmental organisation comprising the Maritime Administrations of countries abutting the Atlantic coast of Africa.

Representatives of Maritime Administrations from Angola, Benin, Cape Verde, Congo Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon, Togo and The Gambia attended the Accra Conference.

Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Ghana have also taken part in the conference.

Dr Bawumia noted that the meeting provided the platform to share a common interest and a common purpose, adding that as coastal states endowed with huge marine natural resources, the blessing also carried a responsibility to protect the marine environment from pollution caused by decades of loose maritime rules and the use of sub-standard ships.

“Today, about 90% of world trade is carried by sea transport and it is indeed vital to the functioning of the global economy. The bulk transport of raw materials and the import/export of affordable food and goods to sustain the global economy would simply not be possible without shipping,”he pointed out.

He noted that as maritime trade increased, so were environmental concerns affecting marine life while the ‘green pressure’ on ships continued to mount, adding that the debate on environmental issues had, for the past, been how international shipping and the maritime community could contribute to sustainable development.

He said enhancing efforts as member states to effectively implement the Port State Control measures, ensuring ships’ compliance with International maritime instruments, would go a long way to help in addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 which enjoined humanity to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Vice President Bawumia said considering the vast maritime opportunities in Africa, the promotion of seaborne trade was fundamentally important to sustainable economic growth as outlined in the African Union’s 2050 Integrated Maritime Strategy (AIMS 2050).

He urged member states to co-operate effectively in the compliance and enforcement of the Port State Control regime and urged them to tighten their nets when carrying out Port State Control Inspections in order to ensure that all ships that called to do business at the ports were seaworthy and operated in accordance with the standards and regulations relating to maritime safety, security and marine environment pollution prevention.

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