ICS to continue to press for BWM convention changes
OCTOBER 8, 2012 — The International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), which represents over 80 percent of the world merchant fleet, says that governments have acknowledged there will be significant problems with the implementation of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention.
Speaking at the end of this week's meeting of the IMO Marine Environmental Protection Committee (MEPC), ICS Secretary General, Peter Hinchliffe, said: "It is good that many governments seem to accept shipowners' arguments that it will be very difficult indeed to retrofit tens of thousands of ships within the timeline of two or three years after entry into force as the Convention text currently requires. IMO has agreed to develop an IMO Assembly Resolution, for adoption in 2013, to facilitate implementation to work smoothly."
ICS says that, in the discussions ahead, it will continue to press for its proposed solution that existing ships should be defined as those having been constructed prior to entry into force, and that retrofitting should not be required until the next full five year survey, rather than the next intermediate survey should this be sooner.
"It is vital that we ease the log jam by spreading implementation over five years rather than two or three." said Peter Hinchliffe.
ICS remains concerned that a number of governments still do not appear to appreciate the scale of the challenge faced by the shipbuilding and repair community in order to cope with the vast number of ships that will be required to install the new treatment systems.
ICS also says that the type-approval process for new treatment equipment is seriously flawed and that much more work still needs to be done by governments to rectify the current situation. It says that shipowners are being required to invest billions of dollars in new treatment systems that may not always work in practice and that it is "very disappointed that many shipowner concerns about the robustness of the type-approval process have been disregarded or sidelined during the MEPC meeting."
"The BWM Convention was designed to assure the ability to meet the required standard by a treatment system installed on an operating vessel, not in the vacuum of a test facility." said Mr. Hinchliffe.
ICS notes that enforcement and compliance actions will not be taken against treatment system manufacturers or test facilities, but against shipowners who in good faith may have installed a type-approved system that when subject to the variables in a real life operating environment may fail to perform as required. A robustly type-approved system, costing between one and five million dollars per ship, should reasonably be expected to operate effectively under all of the normal operating conditions encountered at sea, it says.
ICS is therefore disappointed at the unwillingness of IMO Member States to consider reopening the G-8 Guidelines on type-approval. ICS believes this will make it harder for governments that have not yet done so to consider immediate ratification of the BWM Convention, or for shipowners to invest in the new equipment before they are legally required to do so. The reluctance of many IMO Members States to reconsider the type-approval guidelines will therefore be in the best interests of no one, least of all the environment.
（译文参考：船舶管理部 机务培训师 傅恒星 译）
ICS持续关注BWM公约
2012年10月8日，代表全球超过80%运力商船船队的国际海运协会（ICS）说，不少政府已经承认，未来履行压载水公约仍存在诸多显著的问题。
在本周末IMO的海事环境保护委员会（MEPC）上，ICS秘书长Peter Hinchliffe说：“值得庆幸的是，许多政府已经接受船东这样的抱怨，在2-3年的时间轴内，即压载水管理公约强制生效前，如对成千上万的船舶进行改造来满足法规要求是几乎不可能完成的任务。IMO已经同意在2013年举行国际海事大会通过决议来促进履约工作的顺利开展。”
ICS说，在讨论前，将继续敦促其实施关于现有船定义的解决方案，即现有船应该被定义为那些公约生效前已经建造的船舶，并且应该直到其下一个5年特检时才能要求其对压载水系统进行改造，如果要求在下个中检时进行，时间过于紧迫。
“把履约时间从2-3年延展至5年对于目前处于困境中的航运业来说是至关重要的” Peter Hinchliffe如是说。
ICS一直关心的是，不少政府仍然没有认识到，在未来一段时间内，为了履约将有大量的船舶被要求安装新的处理系统，造船厂和修船组织将面临巨大的挑战。
ICS同时认为，新设备的型式认可程序存在严重的缺陷，政府需要做大量工作来改变现状，也就是说，船东投入了数十亿美元来购买新的处理系统，却不能保证购买的东西实际使用时一定能获得认可，令许多船东失望的是，船东关心的一种健康的型式认可程序的要求在MEPC会议期间却被忽视或摆在一边。
Mr. Hinchliffe说：“BWM公约制定的原意是要确保安装在营运船舶上的压载水处理系统有能力满足相关方的排放要求，而不是仅要一个在封闭工厂里的试验设备。
ICS注意到，强制实施和合规行为都不会遭到设备生产商或测试设备的机构反对，却会遭致那些原来本着坚定的信念，以为安装一款型式认可产品就应该可以应付各种情况，这样合法使用下去，却因为其他新的要求而无法使用的船东的反对。安装一个适用的经型式认可的系统，每条船大约需要1-5百万美元，船东有理由期望在海上该设备能满足各种情况下正常使用。
ICS对IMO成员国在G-8会议上不愿考虑重启“型式认可指南“Guidelines on type-approval”感到失望，ICS相信这对各国政府在什么工作没开展情况下却考虑立即批准BWM公约即将生效，或者对于船东来说在法律要求其如何做之前，去投资一个新设备都将会变得更困难，很多IMO成员国都不愿去重新考虑型式认可指南，都理所当然认为没人感兴趣，对外界所有人来说无足轻重。
