ARTICLE 193 of UNCLOS
confers upon member States the sovereign right to exploit their natural
resources pursuant to their environmental policies and in accordance with their
duty to protect and preserve the marine environment, which requires States to
take all the measures consistent with UNCLOS to prevent, reduce and control
pollution of the marine environment from any sources mentioned in this
convention. Have we complied with this duty to protect marine environment and
obligation to take measures to prevent and control the marine pollution of the
Bay of Bengal (BoB) region?
In the National
Programme of Action (NPA) 1999 under the Global Programme of Action (GPA) of
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), twelve major issues, such as
industrial waste (including ship breaking yards); sewage disposal; solid waste
management; agrochemicals; deforestation; salinity intrusion; rapid
urbanisation; erosion in the coastal zone; coastal tourism; land use change and
climate change, have been identified as the main sources of coastal and marine
pollution of BoB.
In the international
Conference on Marine Environment Aspects of Bangladesh 2010, held in Japan, it
was mentioned that around 3.5 million tons of crude and refined oil are
imported by Bangladesh, which contributes around six thousand tons of oil to
the four hundred thousand tons of annual oil pollution in the BoB.
Approximately 1,800 tons of pesticides enter the Bay annually. The web based
publication 'World Casualty Statistics' 2011, by IHS Fairplay, the largest five
ship recycling countries in the world are India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Turkey which recycle 97% to 98% of the world's tonnage. Interestingly, of the
top three largest ships recycling countries, India and Bangladesh are
surrounded by the BoB. It was reported that about 250 kg of polychlorinated
biphenyl (PCB) are released from each ship in the ship breaking yard of
Chittagong area. With 90 ships being dismantled each year, the total influx of
PCB in Bangladesh could be about 22.5 tons. These toxic chemicals and
pesticides are threats to both coastal and marine environment as well as public
health.
Human rubbish, including
synthetics and plastics, in the oceans and on beaches is called marine debris.
It is one of the world's most ubiquitous pollutants affecting the oceans.
According to the Global Program Action Report 2005 under UNEP, the quantity of
solid waste generated by the costal populations of South Asian Seas (SAS)
region is 11,650 tons per day. In Bangladesh, only a fraction of the solid
waste generated is collected. It is estimated that about 9,000 metric tons of
human waste are released along the coast from Chittagong and Khulna.
If this pollution
continues, it will certainly destroy important habitat and biodiversity; drive
many wildlife species near to extinction; destroy mangrove forests; cause the
whole ecosystem to become unbalanced and hinder sustainable development. For
our survival and sustainable development, it is time to comply with the duty to
protect marine environment and adopt laws and regulations to prevent, reduce
and control pollution of marine environment.
To combat marine
pollution, Bangladesh ratified or signed International Convention on Oil
Pollution Preparedness; Response and Cooperation (London, 1990); Basel
Convention on the Control of Trans boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and
their Disposal (Basel; 1989); United Nations Conventions on the Law of the Sea,
1982; International Convention Relating to Intervention on the High Seas in Cases of Oil Pollution Casualties (Brussels,
1969); and International Convention for
the Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil 1973 (MARPOL) as modified by the
protocol of 1978. The six annexes of
MARPOL (Annex 1 to 6) that are in force in Bangladesh from 2002 cover pollution
by oil, chemicals, harmful substances in packaged form, sewage, and garbage.
But there is no comprehensive national legislation for enforcement of these
conventions.
Some of the laws
concerning marine pollution were enacted 100 years ago and have not been
updated. For example, the Port Act 1908 was enacted to protect the water of
port areas from pollution caused by chronic spillage of oil; dumping of ballast
and rubbish; and discharge of bunker water containing oil from vessels. But the
penal provisions are not adequate. Section 8 of the Territorial Waters and
Maritime Zones Act (TWMZ) 1974 implies that the government may, with a view to
preventing and controlling marine pollution and preserving the quality and
ecological balance in the marine environment in the high seas adjacent to the
territorial waters, take such measures as it may deem appropriate for the
purpose. Section 9 of this Act empowers government to make rules in this
regard. The Environmental Action Plan adopted in 1992 focuses on coastal and
marine environment. It contains 8 plans that have to be implemented by various
agencies of the government.
The Environment
Conservation Act (ECA) of 1995 (amended 2010), followed by the Environment
Conservation Rules (ECR) of 1997, is the umbrella environmental legislation
that provides for overall environmental conservation of the country. The above
mentioned laws are not suitable for implementing the international conventions
ratified by Bangladesh concerning marine pollution.
Bangladesh government,
pursuant to Section 20 of ECA 1995, enacted Ship Breaking and Hazardous Waste
Management Rules 2010. Rule 18 of this law calls upon each importer and
exporter of hazardous wastes to comply with the provisions of Basel Convention
on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their
Disposal, 1989. The Basel Convention focuses on the regulating the
transboundary movement of hazardous wastes to protect developing countries from
importing such wastes that they are unable to manage in an environmentally
sound manner. However, Basel does not establish a system for ship recycling,
rather this has been dealt with in the Hong Kong International Convention for
the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships 2009. Though Bangladesh
is the 3rd largest ship recycling country, it has not ratified the Hong Kong
Convention and the observance of this convention has not been mentioned in Ship
Breaking and Hazardous Waste Management Rules 2010.
Because of the lack of
comprehensive marine environment laws in Bangladesh, there has been little
success in preventing and controlling marine pollution. Comprehensive
legislation is urgently needed to make international conventions concerning
marine environment and marine pollution of the BoB effective. In 2004, the
Department of Shipping drafted a Marine Environment Conservation Act 2004. But
it has not been enacted. It is hoped that the government will enact
comprehensive maritime environmental legislation to protect BoB from marine pollution.
Source: the daily star.
28 October 2014
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