Combating marine pollution brooks no delay

Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982 more than 13 years ago on July 27, 2001. It was a landmark legal step for the settlement of maritime boundary disputes with Myanmar and India. Pursuant to Article 287 of UNCLOS, Bangladesh instituted proceedings against Myanmar before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) on December 14, 2009 and against India before the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) on October 08, 2009 concerning delimitation of the maritime boundary.  These proceedings settled maritime boundary disputes and also established sovereign rights of these States to their respective maritime boundaries in the Bay of Bengal.

Article 193 of UNCLOS gives 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. The duty to protect marine environment requires the 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.

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 that from ship breaking yards, sewage disposal, solid waste management, agrochemicals and pops, deforestation, salinity intrusion, rapid urbanisation, erosion in coastal zones, extraction of coastal tourism, land use change and climate change have been identified as the main sources of coastal and marine pollution in the Bay of Bengal.

In the international Conference on Marine Environment Aspects of Bangladesh, 2010 held in Japan, it was mentioned that around 3.5 million tonnes of crude and refined oil were imported into Bangladesh and the country contributed around six thousand tonnes of oil to the four hundred thousand tonnes of annual oil pollution in the Bay of Bengal. Approximately 1,800 tonnes of pesticides enter the Bay of Bengal annually. The web-based publication World Casualty Statistics-2011 by IHS Fairplay, the largest five ship recycling countries in the world were India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey. These countries recycled 97 per cent to 98 per cent of the world's tonnage. Interestingly it is true that among the top three largest ships recycling countries, India and Bangladesh are surrounded by the Bay of Bengal. It was reported that about 250 kg polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) might be released into the environment from each ship in the ship breaking yard of Chittagong.

In view of the 90 old ships dismantled each year, the total influx of PCB in Bangladesh from the ship breaking industry could be about 22.5 tonnes. These toxic chemicals and pesticides discharged from ship recycling are a threat to both coastal and marine environment as well as public health in the Bay of Bengal region.

Human rubbish, including synthetics and plastics, when present in the oceans and on beaches, is called marine debris. It is one of the world's most ubiquitous pollution affecting the oceans. According to the Global Programme Action Report, 2005 under the United Nations Environment and Programme (UNEP), the quantity of solid waste generated by the coastal populations of South Asian Seas (SAS) region is 11,650 tonnes per day or an average of 0.5 kg per person per day. In Bangladesh only a fraction of the solid waste generated is collected. There is an estimate of about 9,000 tonnes of human waste released from two major coastal cities, e.g. Chittagong and Khulna into the coast of Bangladesh.

If this pollution continues, it will certainly destroy important habitat and biodiversity, leave many wildlife species on verge of extinction, destroy the mangrove forest, do harm to the whole ecosystem of the Bay of Bengal and last but not the least hamper our sustainable development. For the sake of our survival and sustainable development, it is time to comply with what is necessary to do to protect marine environment and the obligation of adopting laws and regulations to prevent, reduce and control pollution of marine environment.

To combat marine pollution, Bangladesh ratified or signed some conventions. Of them, the most remarkable ones are International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Cooperation (London, 1990), Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movement of   Hazardous Waste and Disposal (Basel 1989), United Nations Convention 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 Prevention of Pollution of the Sea by Oil 1973 (MARPOL) as modified by the protocol of  1978. The annexure of MARPOL (Annex 1 to 6) that are in force in Bangladesh from 2002 covers pollution by oil, chemicals, harmful substances in the packaged form or in the form of sewage or garbage.

But there is no comprehensive national legislation as to enforcement of these conventions to prevent and control marine pollution in Bangladesh. Some of the laws concerning marine pollution were enacted 100 years ago and have not been updated.

For an example, the Port Act 1908 was enacted to protect water of port areas from pollution caused by chronic spillage of oil, throwing or casting of ballasts, rubbish or other things 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 states 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. Subsequently section 9 of this Act empowers the government to make rules in this regard. The Environmental Action Plan adopted in 1992 focuses on coastal and marine environment. It contains eight plans concerning coastal and marine environment that are 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 to implement the international conventions ratified by Bangladesh concerning marine pollution.

The government of Bangladesh pursuant to Section 20 of the Environment Conservation Act (ECA) 1995 enacted the Ship Breaking and Hazardous Waste Management Rules 2010. Rule 18 of this law calls upon each importer and exporter of hazardous waste to comply with the provisions of Basel Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movement of the Hazardous Waste and Disposal 1989. The Basel Convention focuses on regulating the trans-boundary movement of hazardous waste in its effort to protect developing countries from importing hazardous waste that they are unable to manage in an environmentally-sound manner. However, the Basel does not establish a dedicated system for ships' recycling. 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 the Ship Breaking and Hazardous Waste Management Rules 2010.

Because of the lack of comprehensive marine environment laws in Bangladesh, the success of preventing and controlling marine pollution is invisible. To give effect to the ratified international conventions concerning marine environment and marine pollution of the Bay of Bengal, a comprehensive legislation is a demand of the time. In 2004 the Department of Shipping drafted a Marine Environment Conservation Act 2004.

The government should enact a comprehensive maritime environmental legislation to protect the Bay of Bengal from marine pollution as it has settled maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar and has thus established sovereign rights of the country to its share of the Bay of Bengal.

Dr Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan is Professor and Head of the Department of Law and Md Jahangir Alam is lecturer of the department at the World

University of Bangladesh.

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