Since the ratification of the Ballast Water Management Convention in September this year, the increasing challenges of implementing the Convention are coming further into light. The UK Chamber of Shipping Ballast Water Management Forum, jointly organised with Fathom Maritime Intelligence, gave industry experts a chance to discuss the difficulties that lie ahead.
As Markus Helavuori, Technical Officer Marine Environment Division IMO explained, a lot of information on the Convention exists, and it can be difficult for people to get their heads around it, particularly following the Marine Environment Protection Committee’s (MEPC’s) 70th session that highlighted the next steps to be taken by the industry. Not only are there a variety of ballast water management systems (BWMS) to choose from, and several more in development, but drawing long-term conclusions and reliability analyses from such systems is increasingly difficult as they do not always function as intended, stated Helavuori. There are a few systems installed on ships, but many are not actually in operation at the moment or have not been for a long time and it is therefore difficult to make decisions based on their long-term performance and reliability, said the ballast water expert.
However, what has been made clear is that early movers will not be penalised, reiterated Helavuori. After October 2020, ships’ BWMS will have to meet the updated G8 Guidelines, but until then, the uncertainty over penalisation of early movers has been halted.
Existing systems that have been approved to the current Guidelines will of course have to be retested to see if they comply with the updated G8 Guidelines, however, as Helavuori highlighted, many systems have seen results that comply well over the required IMO standard and therefore it is likely that these systems will still comply, but they need the retest to prove it.
Helavuori drew upon the roadmap that was decided at MEPC 70 to implement the Convention Guidelines. He stated that this is key and that guidance on contingency measures is essential in order for ship owners and operators to understand what to do if their ships are found to not be in compliance with the Convention. Hopefully this will be finalised at MEPC 71, he concluded.
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