Along with other international organizations and member states of IMO, BIMCO has asked the International Maritime Organization to reconsider its new draft sewage regulation.
Together with a number of member states and international organizations, BIMCO has proposed that the IMO should reconsider the direction, in which the amendment of MARPOL Annex IV has taken concerning existing ships.
BIMCO has participated in an intersessional correspondence group that has been working on preparing draft amendments to MARPOL Annex IV on sewage. The report has been submitted to the 8th session of IMO’s subcommittee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 8) for debate.
What’s in the regulation?
- The draft amendments outline a set of new requirements pertaining to onboard tests verifying the performance of the installed sewage treatment plants (STP), and relevant requirements of a survey regime.
- Furthermore, the report proposes new equipment requirements and a discharge of sewage management system.
- One of the proposed measures introduces stricter standards for effluent from sewage treatment plants (STPs) and new parameters with regard to the measurement of turbidity and total residual oxidizers.
- The STPs on existing ships are not designed to meet these proposed new parameters.
Alternate Suggestions
Instead of the above mentioned stricter requirements, BIMCO and the co-sponsors of this submission have made an alternative suggestion, which is based on developing concrete measures to improve the effluent quality from STPs already installed on existing ships as well as monitor the level of improvement of effluent quality from sewage treatment plants.
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Source: BiMCO
