Ships now dumping sludge in South China sea
KUALA LUMPUR — The~ South China Sea is now the favourite dumping ground fore ships to desludge illegally.
"The hot spot has shifted from the Straits of Malacca and Straits of Johor to the South China Sea because of increased surveillance and enforcement in the two straits," Science, Technology, and Environment Minister Datuk Law Hieng Ding told reporters on Thursday.
The Star yesterday reported that he made this point in response to three sludge-dumping incidents detected in the South China Sea, off the coasts of Pahang and Terengganu, in the past week.
The sludge is the waste left over after the holds of ships and oil tankers are cleaned.
In the first case, the cargo ship Roshni was spotted desludging off Pulau Tioman last,.. Wednesday, while tankers Petro Concord and Pacific Wave ‘~ were suspected to have desludged near Kemaman, Ter’ engganu, on Sunday and Mon— day respectively.
Datuk Law said that the &~ Department of Environment(DOE) was seeking the co-operation of the port authorities- in Singapore and Vietnam to detain the two tankers so that’ ~ evidence could be collected for charges of pollution. He did not elaborate.
He added that the DOE al-’ready had photo evidence of Roshni desludging in Malaysian waters.
A check with the Department of Environment also’ showed that the number of oil spills had increased in the South China Sea since 1991 while those detected in the;, Malacca and Johor straits had decreased.
Datuk Law, after announcing the appointment of foundation fellows for the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, said: "There is a need for-much wider co-operation between Malaysia, other Asean members, China and Indochina to increase surveillance in the South China Sea."
He said that these countries had the same concerns because they shared the use of the sea.
Source : The Straits Times 13th May 1995
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