VIII BRAZILIAN
SEMINAR ON
BALLAST WATER
&
4th GEF-UNDP-IMO
GloBallast Global
Project Task Force
Arraial do Cabo, Brazil
10-14 November 2014
Author: Chief Eng. Walid Alhannini
head of Port state Control Division.
Jordan Maritime Commission /Jordan- Aqaba
Region: Red Sea & Gulf of Aden
Day of presentation: 13 Nov. 2014
Presentation of Jordan
about the BWM activities
at the National level for
the period 2012 – 2014 ,
future challenges &
needs.
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Jordan is landlocked except
at its southern extremity,
where nearly twenty-six
kilometres of shoreline along
the Gulf of Aqaba provide
access to the Red Sea. And
containing Aqaba Ports.
Three countries are sharing
Aqaba gulf with Jordan:
Saudi Arabia , Egypt & Israel.
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The port of Aqaba lies at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba at
the Red Sea, and it is the only main commercial port
in Jordan with about 1400 commercial ship-calls
annually.
The port of Aqaba consists of three Major areas:
1. Main port
2. Middle port zone (container port Zone)
3. Specialized ports and oil terminal
The Maritime Administration of Jordan is the
‘Jordanian Maritime Commission’ (JMC) and has its
offices in Aqaba , the name was before May – 2014
Jordan Maritime Authority until Jordan government
decided to change it to JMC.
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•The Importance of the Ballast Water Issues to our Country is
that the Gulf of Aqaba (the only window to the sea) is
considered to be a closed special area .
* So we are taking good care to Maintain the outstanding
level of the Gulf of Aqaba where no increase in plankton
and harmful organisms or invasive species result threw
the Ballast water of the ships in Ballast water tanks so
as not to harm the Marine environment, beaches,
resorts and attractions.
•Jordan Maritime Commission is sharing the responsibility of
planning and applying the BWM activities with ASEZA (Aqaba
Special Economic Zone Association) , which is a governmental
body.
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JMC is the leading Agency for BWM with continuous
cooperation with ASEZA/ Environment commission, till this
moment, it wasn't recorded any invasive species issues
through samples which were taken From sea water by Marine
Science Station/University of Jordan & Yarmouk University
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- National BWM Committee consists of all related entities was formed
in 2008
- The First Globallast Regional Task Force Meeting in June 2009
- & Three workshops in BWM were Organized by: The Regional
Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea
and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in cooperation with the GloBallast
Partnerships Project Coordination Unit
- The third one (5 -7 May 2014) held in Jordan Maritime Commission
headquarters in Aqaba city hosted & Supported by: GEF UNDP
GloBallast Partnerships Project and IMO under the patronage of the
Minister of transport, Chairman of the Maritime Commission.
- Regional Workshop in BWM Jeddah 19~21May2014 organized by
(PERSGA)
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Objectives of the workshops :
1) provide a range of information and skills to participants to enable them
to take appropriate steps in accordance with the different functions of the
effective application of themes commitment and implementation of
BWMC.
2) Enable participants to exchange experience with others, review and
discuss common themes in addition to acquiring new skills pertaining to
the subject of the workshop.
3) Provide an opportunity for all parties to cooperate with each other and
establish a national cooperation networks.
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The Steps of BWM strategy of Jordan:
1- Prepare a form of ballast record by JMC to be used in all the ships
flying Jordan flag . And this is under process now.
2- Preparing BWM regulations , by direct translation of the regulations stated
in the BWM convention into Arabic language with some modification to
suit the local laws . Then after reviewing and approving them by the
lawyers , in order to enter them into the National legislation to be applied
on ground.
This step is suspended now until the BWM convention reach the Entry into
force level .
3- starting the training of PSC officers of Jordan Maritime commission at the
correct way of applying the operational controls and other inspections
required to be done onboard foreign ships calling Aqaba ports and
Apply the provisions of the Convention. To be ready when the convention
enter into force .
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4- Any Ship calling Aqaba and require to apply the provisions of
BWM conventions is informed by PSCO’s since June 2014 that
Jordan will be part of the convention soon , and that they
must comply with the requirements from now , as when the
convention enter into force , any Incompatibility will result in
recording deficiency & maybe detention of the ship.
5- Keeping & strengthen the cooperation and relation with
neighboring countries & regional organizations in the subject
keeping the water of the red sea , and thus the gulf of Aqaba
free of any harmful organisms & invasive species.
Jordan is doing all efforts to ensure that the BWM program will
be permanent & continuous even after the GloBallast project
ended. And this can be done by entering all the BWM regulations
adopted by IMO into the National legislations to be force applied
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• Ratification of the Convention:
• Jordan boosts Ballast Water Convention
• 09/09/2014 The campaign for better implementation of IMO
conventions received a boost today when H.E. Mr Mazen AlHomoud, Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to
the UK, met IMO Sec-Gen Sekimizu to deposit the instruments
of accession to the Ballast Water Management Convention.
•
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Of course the circular which announce Jordan ratification stated
that the BWM convention will not enter into force until 35% of
the biggest world GT countries ratify the convention, and at the
moment 32.54% is reached which means that we have to wait.
And that what cause the decision makers in Jordan decided to
delay Entering the BWM regulations into national legislations.
But what is clear is that there is a political & governmental
support for this matter from the highest levels in Jordan. And we
have made the possible institutional arrangements represented
by the governmental laboratories who are qualified to take and
analyses samples from sea.
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General Remarks:
•The BW reporting form has not been introduced yet in Jordan ,
but we are working on that and hope to be introduced soon.
• Jordan (& the other regional countries) didn’t identify any area
for ballast water exchange as all the red sea is considered to be
special area , and we will depend on the ship documentation on
this matter and the fact that they made the exchange outside
Aqaba gulf.
•For the ballast water risk assessment and sampling programs
subjects , Jordan did that for scientific studies & research
purposes done by Jordan & Yarmuk universities as mentioned
above ,,,, and the good news is that the results were
negative (i.e. nothing harmful).
•Most of the small Jordan fleet are ships who have no ballast
systems due to its types .
BUT >>>>>>>>
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•Three ships build in 2013 , and
launched in 2014 , registered under
Jordanian flag and have a BWTS Of D2
Ultra violet type provided for them.
All of them are Multi- purpose general
cargo ships.
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- Regional Cooperation:
As stated before , Jordan is a member state in the (PERSGA) ,
and we are active member participate in All PERSGA activities up
to now , and sharing experience with other member states , and
we have the honor that one of the big experts in the PERSEGA is
Jordanian (DR. Salim AlMughrabi) who is participating with us .
-PERSEGA sent us Regional Strategic Action Plan for the Control
of Transfer of Harmful Aquatic Organisms and Pathogens (HAOP)
in Ships` Ballast Water, which considered to be one of the most
best plans when adopted and applied by PERSEGA member
states . And in Jordan it is still under study & discussion , hoping
to adopt it and reply PERSEGA soon.
- We give our experience to the neighboring countries through a
twining program such as Sudan , Djibouti & Somalia.
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Future Challenges and needs – Sustainability
The Globallast partnerships project helped our country very well
to spot the light into the expected dangers may occur at the gulf
of Aqaba if the situation is still neglecting the invasive organisms
issues may come with the ballast water loaded on ships ballast
tanks calling Aqaba from World wide. And now we become
familiar of the correct ways of sampling , analyzing & the
deferent types of Harmful organisms founded in all sea waters.
And we believe that we succeeded in putting our legs on the first
steps of a long career to achieve our goals of protecting our gulf
by efficient ways. And that is the best lesson learned from the
project.
The remaining hurdles and priorities in our country from my side
of view is to spread the culture of BWM in all entities related to
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Give us the support to start the procedures of force apply the
requirements of the convention as soon as possible.
Also we hope that we get a proper grant & financial coverage
from the project to procurement the required instruments &
equipments needed for sampling and analyzing .
And we hope that the project also help us start establishing a
biofouling programme at the national level in Jordan.
At last we hope to reach the JMC vision :
“ toward clean and safe seas”
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Thank you for good
listening
ANY QUESTIONS?
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