The International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Ballast Water Management Convention is set for implementation in September 2017, so the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) is urging IMO member states to ratify revisions of the G8 Type Approval Guidelines for treatment systems.
“We must ensure that shipowners can have absolute confidence that the expensive equipment they will soon have to install will be effective in treating ballast water conditions normally encountered during worldwide operations and be regarded as fully compliant during Port State Control inspections,” stated Esben Poulsson, ICS chairman.
“The fixing of a definite implementation date, after so many years of delay, will at least give shipowners some of the certainty needed to make important decisions about whether to refit the new mandatory treatment equipment or otherwise to start sending ships for early recycling,” he further noted.
Still, ICS said there is still uncertainty surrounding the more stringent US approval regime for treatment equipment, which was first enforced in January 2014. Issues about implementation exist because the requirements are already in place; however, the systems needed to meet them have yet to be approved.
