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In October this year the Accra based Regional Maritime
Academy would attain full University status, thus increasing
maritime activity and expertise in our waters. Ghanadots’
Sammy Dowouna examines the expected changes.
SUB-REGIONAL TRADE BOOST AND MARITIME
SAFETY
Samuel Dowuona,
Ghanadot
Come October this year the Accra-based Regional Maritime
Academy (RMA), owned and funded by Anglophone countries in
the West African Sub-region would fully attain the status of
a full fledged University. Consequently the name of the
academy would change to Regional Maritime University (RMU)
and it would offer degree programmes and award its own
degrees.
When that happens, it would have been a great achievement
for the sub-region and for the able management of the
academy. But that achievement would only be a means to an
end. That end is to turn out more of the much needed high
quality human resource to effectively and efficiently ensure
maritime safety in the territorial and trans-boundary waters
within the sub-region.
Maritime in general does not seem to mean anything to the
average lay person in Africa and so the talk of maritime
safety sounds like some abstract concept in the ears of most
Africans. At best the mention of maritime brings to the
average African mind pictures of the navy at sea. As to what
exactly the navy does at sea is not the business of most a
lay man in Africa.
Like in Aviation; hardly do people think of the Air Traffic
Control (ATC) aspect of aviation. But that aspect is the
most important aspects of the aviation industry. In fact
without it aviation safety or safety in the air would
absolutely be non-existent and planes would not even move in
the first place.
In the same manner the concept of maritime safety should
bring to mind safety in our territorial waters and the
processes that go into ensuring it. A better understanding
would be to think of activities that go on at our sea ports
and harbours; the import and export of loads of goods
through shipment by sea.
Simply put, the need to ensure that the waters and weather
conditions are safe for ships to move; prevent ships from
running into each other and into tip of ice begs, prevent
sea pollution, ensure ecological and sea life protection,
have a search and rescue machinery in place and in some
cases ward of pirates, is what may be described as maritime
safety.
It may sound simple as I have put it in the lay man’s
language but making it happen takes special training that
includes the ability to use special equipment, understand
maritime language, which makes use of special maritime terms
and more.
As the world moves towards globalization, the need has
arisen for Africans to build regional and continental blocs.
This concept of globalization and regionalization and if you
like continentalisation among other things has led to the
need for a second West African Monetary Zone made up of the
Anglophone (English speaking) countries in ECOWAS.
Indeed the first monetary zone in ECOWAS is made up of all
the Francophone countries united by a common currency, the
CFA Francs. The second monetary zone would be the ECO under
the West African Monetary Zone.
One of the core factors that would both lead to and
concretize the second monetary zone is increased trade
between the member-states.
Experts contend that with the current state of
trans-boundary motorist roads within the sub-region and the
high cost of air freight, maritime transport (shipping) is
the best option for the expected increased trade within the
sub-region.
If that is so then Profesor Chidi Ibe, the Executive
Secretary, Interim Guinea Current Commission (IGCC) and
Regional Director, Guinea Current Large Marine Ecosystem (GCLME)
was not far from right when he suggested that there is an
urgent need to put measures in place for speedy response to
maritime emergencies.
Hear him: “It is expected that the sub-region would be
better placed to intervene jointly in cases of major
maritime accidents either in the territorial waters of
single nations or in cases of a trans-boundary nature
affecting more than just one country.
“But our (the sub-region) ability to deal with such
eventualities would be greatly enhanced by the member states
of the sub-region taking steps to ratify international
conventions.”
Prof. Ibe warned in very unequivocal terms that with the
expected increase in trade and its attendant upsurge in the
volume of sea traffic in general and tanker traffic in
particular “the potential for maritime accidents is only a
fingertip away”.
If his expert words are anything to go by then danger must
be looming in the Gulf of Guinea, which indeed, in its
widest extent, covers all the member-countries of the board
of the RMA, soon to be RMU.
In raising the issues about what need to be done to prevent
and or to effectively respond to maritime emergencies, the
Prof. posed rhetorical questions pertinent to the
preparedness, response and co-operation of member-states to
maritime emergencies.
He noted sadly that in spite of the looming danger no formal
regional or sub-regional cooperation exists either in Search
and Rescue (SAR) or the Oil Spillage Contingency Planning (OSCP),
which are the two main marine challenges in the sub-regional
waters at the moment.
In both situations; search and rescue, as well as dealing
with oil spillage, success is highly dependent on speed of
action and quality of response. Those factors would also
depend on weather conditions, distance from shore and state
of the sea as much as they do on the type of equipment in
use, proficiency of personnel, facilities available and
cohesiveness (effective communication) by which the whole
operation is carried out.
Speaking of effective communication, the Prof. noted that
even though International Maritime Organization (IMO) had
standardized marine vocabulary there are still situations
where certain phrases and terms are misconstrued and
misinterpreted by parties at both ends of a rescue mission.
It is important for mariners to not only familiarize
themselves with standardized maritime language but also
ensure that there was common understanding and
interpretation of such terms among member-states of the RMA.
Additionally it is necessary for all member-states to append
their signatures to the IMO conventions that enjoins ships
of member-countries to respond to distress from other ships
at sea, even if it means they have to cross into another’s
territorial waters.
Member-states could also take advantage of the
recommendations of the 2000 Florence Conference on Maritime
SAR to establish the sub-Regional Maritime Rescue
Co-ordination Centre (RMRCC) to coordinate in co-operation
with national authorities concerned with SAR operation.
That conference recommendation that the Morocco RMRCC should
be from Morocco to Guinea Bissua, Liberia RMRCC; from Guinea
to Ghana, Nigeria RMRCC should be from Togo to DR Congo and
Angola to Comoros should constitute the South African RMRCC
is most acceptable and the way forward.
Whilst the SAR operations focus on rescuing human live, the
Oil Spillage Contingency Plan should focus on saving marine
life and the environment. The Professor revealed that the
Gulf of Guinea is indeed a vast pool of petroleum and gas
and for that RMA member-states need to adopt strong regional
positions to combat the effects of oil spillage on our
marine life and environment.
Here we are looking at preventing and or minimizing
ecological pollution, saving the beaches, marine life; the
fishes, sea birds etc.
Again the ratification of international and regional
conventions is key to ensuring countries’ commitment to the
obligation to effectively deal with oil spillage at sea.
In that light Prof. Ibe assured trans-boundary traders in
the sub-region that two meetings in Accra in April this
years saw the advent of what would lead to the Liberia RMRCC,
which sought to establish a sub-regional SAR programme on
one hand and an OSCP on the other. He lauded those meetings
as efforts by the region to take ownership of the
implementation of existing international recommendations on
co-operation to ultimately ensure safety at sea for lives,
property and the environment.
Speaking of ownership brings up the issue of funding. In
that respect, Prof. Ibe pointed to the International Search
and Rescue (ISAR) Fund, a multi-donor facility set up by the
IMO to assist member-states to cover the initial expenses of
establishing the five RMRCCs and 26 MRCCs in Africa. The
ISAR Fund is there to help developing countries put up SAR
infrastructure, but member-states would need to take
advantage of it.
With regards to Oil Spillage Contingency Planning, a number
of international protocols such as OPRC - 1990, CLC – 1992
and the fund convention also of the same year, exist to
provide a framework for international cooperation for
combating major oil pollution incidents by way of funding.
It is hoped that the counsel of Prof. Ibe would be heeded by
RMA member-states and that they would take advantage of the
existing safety nets and support systems in the
international community to put our maritime safety machinery
in a shape such as would boost the confidence of
trans-boundary traders within the sub-region in maritime as
a means of effective trade.
It is also hoped that as the RMA attains a University
status, it would receive the necessary funding from the
member-states to turn out the personnel with adequate
equipment to handle marine emergencies effectively and
thereby ensure smooth movement of goods by sea and effective
trade within the sub-region for that matter.
Samuel Dowouna, June 23, 2007, Ghanadot.com
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