Finland: IMO Adopts HELCOMs Proposal to Ban Sewage Discharge from Ships in Baltic Sea

– The Baltic Sea Action Plan milestone makes Baltic the first sea in the world designated by IMO as a Special Area for sewage discharges;

– all HELCOM countries active in backing up the proposal;

– regulations adopted in record time in July 2011

The HELCOM Maritime Group proposal to ban all sewage discharge from passenger ships in the Baltic Sea was adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) on 15 July 2011. Any such discharge will be prohibited unless the ship uses an approved sewage treatment plant capable of sufficiently reducing nutrients, or delivers untreated sewage to a port reception facility. The elaborate process of reaching the agreement between the Baltic Sea countries, developing the proposal and negotiating it in IMO took less than four years.

“This achievement is part of the Baltic Sea Action Plan (2007-2021) and I am proud to say that all the nine HELCOM countries were active in backing up the joint stand in IMO. The Baltic is now the first sea in the world designated by IMO as a Special Area for sewage discharges under the international shipping law”, says Jorma Kämäräinen from the Finnish Transport Safety Agency, who took the lead in the proposal process.

In order to enforce the new regulations, reception facilities for sewage in ports used by passenger ships need to be adequate, and upgraded where needed. The upgrading efforts, agreed by the coastal countries and facilitated by HELCOM Cooperation Platform on Port Reception Facilities, are expected to be completed by 2015 at the latest.

Both new and existing passenger ships operating in the Baltic Sea Special Area will be required to comply with the anti-discharge regulations by 2016 and 2018, respectively.

The more stringent regulations for sewage discharge is another milestone in protecting marine environment against pollution from ships and combating its major environmental problem – eutrophication. Previously, far-reaching prohibitions and restrictions on any discharge into the sea of oil or oily mixtures and garbage have been introduced by the Baltic Sea States, under the IMO’s International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL, Annexes I and V). The new amended passenger ship regulations are covered by Annex IV of MARPOL.

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Source: HELCOM, August 17, 2011.