Pollution : Conference to draw up legal framework
A LEGAL framework for regional cooperation is necessary to stop tankers and other vessels from taking advantage of the limited ability of individual governments to deal with transborder pollution problems.
About 120 environmental experts are in Singapore working out such a framework which could help resolve common environmental problems such as marine pollution in the Asia-Pacific region.
The two-day closed door Conference on International Boundaries and Environmental Security. Frameworks for Regional Cooperation is organised by the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Advanced Studies and Department of Geography and the International Boundaries research Unit of the University of Durham.
The guest of honour, Mr Yatiman Yusof, Permanent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, said yesterday that marine pollution provided a good case for regional cooperation.
He said that Singapore, located in the world’s busiest international waterway, was aware of its responsibilities and had been working closely with its neighbours on common issues.
For instance, he added that an Asean meeting on transboundary pollution was taking place in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
A participant, Dr Douglas Johnston, programme director of the Southeast Asian Programme in Ocean Law, Policy and Management, and an expert on environmental law, said that benefits to be reaped from cooperation wou1d encourage countries to work even closer.
For Instance, a vessel could pollute the waters of a country then flee into neighbouring waters. The country whose sea was polluted could not pursue the vessel into its neighbour’s territory; nor did the neighbour have the power to detain It.
Dr Johnston said these countries would soon realise it would be in their mutual interest to work out laws stopping such practices.
Today, participants discuss issues In areas such as the Mekong Basin and the South China Sea.
Source : The Straits Times, 16th June 1995
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