The Rotterdam and Amsterdam port companies will carry out more inspections for a cleaner sea. They do this in collaboration with the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT). Recently, the ILT, Port of Rotterdam (PoR) and Port of Amsterdam (PoA) signed a new cooperation agreement for this.
More inspections
In the coming year, additional inspectors from the port authorities will be trained to carry out specific pre-wash and sulfur inspections. Among other things, they will check whether tankers comply with the rules in the field of prewashing (pre washes) of cargo tanks. These inspections have been carried out by the Port of Rotterdam Authority for some time, but now inspectors in Amsterdam have also been trained for this.
“There is a shared responsibility for our marine environment. The ILT monitors national and international environmental regulations and can use the ears and eyes of the inspectors of our large ports in this regard. Together we see more. In this way, we jointly take responsibility for cleaner ships and ports and a healthy living environment.”
cleaner sea
The three participating parties have been working closely together for ten years to enforce the rules from the Prevention of Pollution from Ships Act (WVvS). The collaboration reduces the supervisory burden for shipping companies and improves inspections. The intensification of the cooperation focuses on even more information- and risk-driven working methods and on topics that benefit the protection of the marine environment. Think of new legislation regarding the dispensing of washing water from paraffin-like substances and of supervision of clean ship decks of ships that load and unload in the port, such as at Tata Steel. The new European directives on supervision of ship waste and the sulfur content in ship fuel are also being implemented by the port authorities. They will select ships in a risk-based manner for inspections and from now on they will register the results in a central European database.
Joint supervision plan
After the first pilot year, the cooperation agreements will be further elaborated in a WVvS supervision plan. The outline agreement that has now been signed leaves ample room for adjustments in the coming period. For example, it must be shown whether the target numbers for the number of inspections are feasible, and the port authorities can gain experience with their new tasks. In the longer term, the port authorities and the Inspectorate are looking at expanding cooperation in the field of the Transport of Hazardous Substances Act (Wvgs), according to the inspection of living environment and transport.
Photo above: Nieuwland Photography / Shutterstock.com
