Danger: iceberg ahead.

The Sea as Suitable Dump Site

Human economic activity for industrial growth and development has left man's fingerprints everywhere on the coastal margin, and encroachment on territorial waters proceeds at an alarming rate. The diversity of operations include offshore activities such as marine transportation, fishing, dumping of wastes and exploitation of crude oil and natural gas. The growing exploitation of the coast and open sea is a reflection of population increase, accelerating urbanization, greater affluence and faster transport trends. As a consequence, aquatic habitats are being lost irretrievably to industrial installations and civil constructions, to the development of tourist facilities and aquaculture, and to the rapid growth of coastal settlements and cities. Although difficult to quantify, the neglect and destruction of beaches and wetlands, including mangrove swamps, as well as the phenomenal erosion of the shoreline, continue to be unchecked. This trend can only lead to widespread deterioration in the quality and productivity of the marine environment.

The direction of technological development may solve some immediate problems, but may cause even greater ones in the long run. Settled agriculture, the diversion of water courses, the extraction of minerals, the emission of heat and noxious gases into the atmosphere, commercial forests and genetic manipulation are all examples of human intervention in natural systems during the course of development. Until recently, such interventions were small in scale and of limited impact. Today's intervention is more drastic in scale and impact, and more threatening to life support systems both locally and globally.

Beyond meeting basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, etc., there is the legitimate aspiration for improved quality of life. A society may in many ways compromise its ability to meet the essential needs of its people by over-exploiting resources; therefore, there is a need for sustainable development. Economic growth, it is felt, is intertwined with physical ecosystem. Exploitation needs to be planned. The effects of soil erosion rates, water regimes and genetic oloses have to be taken into account. Renewable resources, like forests and fish stock, need not be depleted, provided the rate of use is within the limits of regeneration and natural growth. To achieve this, maximum sustainable yield must be defined after taking into account the system-wide effects of exploitation. In essence, sustainable development is seen as a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and institutional change are all in harmony. The concept implies limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organization on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities.

It is agreed that the equity will only be avoided by political systems which ensure conservation programmes, together with non-governmental organizations and environmental pressure groups. Sustaining human life and well-being require development of a healthy environment. This can become difficult to achieve if natural resources are depleted by degradation of the environment. The ultimate goal of all strategies for development and protection of the ocean coastal and nearshore areas and their resources should be to ensure their rational use.

I will not focus so much on the causes and sources of marine pollution because the problem is quite widespread - it has become a topical issue during seminar presentations, workshop discussions and even courses of study in many institutions. What the world needs is how to take care of the mess we as humans have created for ourselves. The solution, just like the problem, is around us, only the will to implement is sometimes very dicey.

Humans have to live within the constraints that this planet imposes. Already, there are many instances of human interferences with natural systems, leading to severe adverse consequences. The key to our survival must be an understanding of the nature of natural systems and the complex interactions between the natural environmental compartments. The oceans probably constitute the greatest of these compartments and, in many ways, the least understood. It is of enormous importance to our ultimate survival as species that we recognize what the oceans can do for us, not only as a source of food, minerals and energy, but also as an aid to proper management of our waste products. It is equally important that we do all we can to understand the complexities of the oceans so that we do nothing that causes irreversible damage.

For a long time, the sea was considered a suitable dump site. Today, it is realized that marine environment has limited capacity to receive waste without harmful effects. Since the sea is a common property and marine pollution does not respect national boundaries, management of marine pollution should be globally done. Therefore, there is need to inculcate an environmentally-friendly attitude, adopting appropriate technologies enforcing legal controls.

Successful coastal management requires integrated, collaborative action by national and regional agencies, the participation of local citizens and industry, and agreements among nations. When, as often happens, this collaboration is viewed as an infringement of institutional or national sovereignty, rational environmental management suffers. Even when agreements exist, there may be little will to implement them. We need an integrated management policy, with adequate legal provision for rational, coordinated and effective management and control for all industrial, agricultural and domestic activities, as well as a policy of sustainable development aimed at promoting harmony between humanity and nature. This requires: a political system that secures effective citizen participation in decision making; an economic system that is able to generate surpluses and technical knowledge on a self-reliant and sustained basis; and a social system that provides for solution for the tensions arising from disharmonious development.

RELATED ARTICLE: What the World, and its United Nations, Can Do Together

The problem of marine pollution is as old as man himself, and much has been said and written about the issue. The solution lies on collective efforts, starting from national to sub-regional and regional measures. The International Maritime Organization, whose establishment was decided upon at a United Nations maritime conference in 1948, has in collaboration with participating Governments finalized a lot of international conventions regarding this issue. But there should be progression from just having conventions to implementing the same. The best implementation standard should consist of the following, suggests Dr. Mkpandiok:

Institutionalizing integrated management: This should apply to an integrated coastal management approach to marine pollution from both sea and land-based sources. There should be allowance for multi-sectoral development to progress with minimized negative impacts by efficiently allocating scarce resources among competing demands. It should also incorporate the prevention and mitigation of the adverse impacts of human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems into the planning, development and operational activities of the stakeholders. Its basic theme should revolve around the involvement of major stakeholders such as Governments, the private sector, local communities, and scientific and educational institutions in the decision-making and management process.

Risk assessment and management of potential pollution areas: National governments should embark on risk assessment of areas prone to marine pollution by studying land-based economic developments, with its impacts on human and ecosystem health. The aim of this assessment should be to identify existing and potential pollution risks to the coastal and marine environment, strengthen surveillance and regulatory mechanisms and instruments for managing pollution, and package the approaches, methods and experience for use within subregions where similar issues are apparent.

International conventions: Ratifications of international convention agreements on marine pollution should be encouraged regionally, whereby a body could be set up to assist participating countries develop necessary legislative and technical capability to ratify, as well as implement, international conventions related to marine pollution. Programme activities under this component include identification and assessment of marine pollution legislation and regulations.

The activities are aimed at looking into individual State and national perspectives and their existing capacities and constraints in implementing international conventions. Another activity should be the establishment of a network of legal experts in participating countries. The network will facilitate the building of linkages for region-wide action on issues such as model national legislation, guidelines on the ratification and implementation of conventions, and the development of effective national enforcement and compliance programmes. Another approach should be the training and utilization of existing human resources at the level of local government.

Sustainable financing: Regional programmes should create partnerships between public and private sectors - the "partnerships" stemming from the need to look into financial mechanisms from the perspective of the different users of marine resources and the environment. These "partnerships" are important to identify, develop and implement financial mechanisms in support of marine pollution prevention and management programmes, and determine a cooperative framework in which Governments, the private sector and others are able to identify their niche and contribution.

Case studies could be completed in the areas of application of economic instruments to sustain the operation of shoreline reception facilities, sewage collection and treatment services, solid waste management, navigational safety and pollution management in port areas.

Information dissemination and training: Information dissemination under regional programmes can include the publication and distribution of technical reports, scientific papers, in-house research and quarterly reports, case studies and mission reports. Essay-writing contests, cleanest coastal village contests and the publication of quarterly newsletters and annual reports can be initiatives of local governments to promote public awareness and participation in abatement of marine pollution.

On-the-job training can be provided through direct involvement of local government officers, scientists and resource managers in project planning, development and implementation.

Formal training activities can be carried out after some training-need assessments have been done to ascertain areas of pressing importance. Training can be in areas of oil spill contingency and response, marine water-quality sampling and field measurements, sea-use planning, etc.

Ms. Mkpandiok, Lecturer and Acting Head of the Maritime Studies Department at the Maritime Academy of Nigeria. was awarded the 1998 Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Memorial Fellowship on the Law of the Sea. The Fellowship was established by the UN General Assembly and named in memory et the Sri Lankan Ambassador who presided over the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea. Ms. Mkpandiok, who will use the award to study sea-use planning and coastal zone management, contributed this article at the request of the UN Chronicle.