General Manager of the Ghana Maritime Authority (GMA), Thomas Kofi Alonsi, has signaled a strong warning to agents of vessels, shippers and institutions against the indiscriminate discharge of waste materials and inappropriate spillage of pollutants into water bodies.
He reiterated the mandate of the regulatory body and promised that culprits will be severely punished for violations to deteriorate further recurrences.
“The Ghana Maritime Authority superintends over the Ghana Maritime Pollution act and provides for the prevention, regulatory and control of marine pollution. This applies to any Ghanaian ship while in port.
In order to achieve this, we embarked on an extensive MARPOL inspection campaign in 2021. The actions of the authority were so biting that they were reported in the International Maritime Media indicating how Ghana had gone tough on tackling Marine environmental issues. We also targeted violations of cabbage and oily water under MARPOL annex 5. Under these inspections campaign, vessels violating the MARPOL provisions were heavily fined and vessels were detained in port pending judgements in courts. I’m happy that this campaign reduced the pollution in our marine environment.
I’ll use this platform to caution agents of marine vessels who by their actions encourage these foreign vessels to do things they dare not do in the course of their originating countries. Such as the discharge of raw sewerage and cabbage into the ocean. We wish to serve notice that the authority will be relentless in the execution of its mandate against marine pollution.
In a recent press briefing, Mr. Alonsi disclosed that the authority in its mandate has acquired a Vehicle Traffic Management Information System (VTMIS) to enhance the surveillance routine on the country’s waters.
“The VTMIS is an enhanced electronic surveillance system that has the capacity to monitor activities on the entire coast of Ghana including the exclusive economic zones and the Volta Lake using its integrated detection and transmitting equipment. It increases the awareness of our maritime domain leading to the decrease and illicit maritime activities in our waters,” he stated.
“Further to the safety and security of ships in our maritime domain, the following control areas within Ghana’s maritime jurisdiction are under continuous surveillance and these include the West Africa Gas pipeline, the Tema Oil Pipeline, Aboagyi Oil Pipeline, the Ghana Gas Pipeline, Jubilee Oil Fields, Ken Oil Fields, Sankofa Oil Fields and Fishing prohibited zones,” he cautioned.
The General Manager of GMA subsequently indicate that a new boat for security patrols has been acquired and “can stay at sea continuously for two weeks, has a daughter craft for rapid response purposes to prevent IUU and other illicit maritime activities”.
