Shanghai is well developed in shipping and densely packed with ships, so the prevention and control of pollution from ships faces great challenges. On December 21, the 47th meeting of the 15th Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of Shanghai voted through the Regulations of Shanghai on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Ships (hereinafter referred to as the Regulations), which put forward new standard requirements for the prevention and control of pollution from ships.
For example, it clearly prohibits the discharge of domestic sewage, oily sewage to the Huangpu River and Suzhou River. Inland river vessels directly to the outboard domestic sewage discharge lines, valves should be lead sealed or broken blind.
This legislation is also a collaborative project of Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai, the two provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta. According to the laws and regulations of Jiangsu and Shanghai that have been formulated and introduced, all have special seals for the Yangtze River Delta, which make it clear to share information such as ship pollution monitoring and warning, trans-regional receiving and handling of pollutants and ship pollution accident handling, and they will work together to enforce the law.
A number of requirements for prevention and control of pollution from ships
Located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, Shanghai is the intersection of the national Belt and Road Initiative and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It is located at the center of the North-South channel and east-west artery of China's water transportation. As a world-class comprehensive hub port, Shanghai Port has ranked first in the world in terms of container throughput for 12 consecutive years, and has become the port with the most container routes, the densest liner ships and the widest coverage in mainland China.
In the view of Yan Rui, director of the Commission of Legislative Affairs of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of Shanghai, the development and introduction of the Regulations is of great significance for the concrete implementation of the Protection Law of Yangtze River, the establishment and improvement of a long-term mechanism, and the comprehensive improvement of the ability to prevent and control pollution from ships.
According to Yan Rui, the Regulations first make it clear that the owner, operator or manager of the ship and the principal of the relevant operation unit is the first responsible person. The captain has the right to make independent decisions in accordance with the law and bear the ultimate responsibility in the prevention and control of the water environment polluted by the ship.
According to the actual situation of Shanghai, the Regulations put forward a number of requirements on the prevention and control of pollution from ships. For example, pollutant receiving facilities of the new construction, alteration, expansion of ports and wharfs and ship should be designed, constructed and put into use simultaneously with the main project. Units engaged in receiving, transferring and disposing of pollutants from ships shall use a supervisory and management information system that meets the requirements, install a corresponding video surveillance system, and store video surveillance data for at least three months.
The Regulations also require ships to be banned from honking their horns in waters between the Yangpu Bridge and Xupu Bridge on the Huangpu River, as well as in navigable inland waters within the outer-ring road, except for safety and other factors. In addition, Shanghai can designate green shipping demonstration zones and implement stricter measures to prevent and control pollution from ships.
It is prohibited to discharge domestic sewage and oily sewage into Huangpu and Suzhou River.
How to discharge domestic sewage and oily sewage into Huangpu and Suzhou River? In addition to Huangpu and Suzhou River, it is also forbidden to discharge oily sewage into other navigable waters of inland waterways. It also makes it clear that inland river vessels directly to the outboard domestic sewage discharge lines, valves should be lead sealed or broken blind.
Accordingly, this legislation makes it clear that domestic refuse, domestic sewage and oily sewage produced by inland waterway vessels shall be received, transferred and disposed of by the government through the purchase of services. According to the Regulations, domestic refuse and sewage from inland waterway vessels shall be delivered every five days or at least once per voyage, unless there are reasonable reasons.
In fact, Shanghai has been adhering to the policy of receiving pollutants from ships free of charge in recent years. Jiang Hongfei, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, said that since October 1, 2018, Shanghai has been implementing free reception of domestic garbage, domestic sewage and oily sewage from inland waterway vessels in the inland waters of Shanghai Port and the downstream waters of Huangpu River. Since the implementation of free reception, a total of about 400,000 vessels have been served and about 80,000 cubic meters of pollutants have been received.
"We will work with relevant units to further optimize the setting of receiving points, and gradually increase or optimize fixed receiving points and mobile receiving routes according to the delivery needs of pollutants from ships in each region." Jiang Hongfei said, they will update and release the free receiving service guide for ship pollutants in a timely manner, and will also strengthen the tracking and evaluation of the implementation of the policy to ensure that this free policy is better implemented after the implementation of the regulations.
To increase pollution prevention efforts, the Regulations also prohibit ships carrying liquid dangerous goods in bulk with the outer hull plate as the perimeter of the liquid cargo tank from berthing or operating in the main flow of the Yangtze River, the Huangpu River and other navigable waters of inland rivers.
Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai worked together to legislate and serve and act jointly
It is worth mentioning that this legislation is also a collaborative project of Jiangsu, Anhui and Shanghai, the two provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta. In November 2022, the Regulations of Jiangsu Province on the Prevention and Control of Pollution from Ships on the Yangtze River were developed and introduced. With the adoption of the Regulations in Shanghai, the National People's Congress of Anhui Province is also speeding up the legislation. Pollution from ships is fluid, and the two provinces and one city will jointly do a good job in the prevention and control of pollution from ships.
From the perspective of the regulations of Shanghai and Jiangsu, in order to strengthen the linkage between the Yangtze River Delta, the regulations of both places have set up special seals on regional cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta, clearly establishing corresponding communication and coordination mechanisms, sharing information such as ship pollution monitoring and warning, trans-regional receiving and transshipment of pollutants and ship pollution accident handling, and establishing mechanisms such as joint operation of law enforcement, emergency cooperation and credit joint punishment.
In addition, the Regulations specify a number of things to strengthen the construction and use of shore power.
For example, to promote ports and wharfs being fully equipped with shore power facilities, to promote the standardized construction of port shore power facilities and ship receiving power facilities. It is made clear that, except for special circumstances, the wharf shall be "fully supplied" and the ship shall be "fully used". In addition, port operators are required to file information such as the main technical parameters and distribution locations of shore power facilities with the transportation department and disclose it to the public to improve the docking efficiency of ship port and shore power.
At present, Shanghai International Cruise Terminal has achieved full coverage of high voltage frequency conversion shore power, and the coverage rate of shore power of five types of specialized berths has reached 79%. Jiang Hongfei said Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission will next guide new, renovated and expanded terminals to standardize the construction of port shore power facilities, which is expected to be fully covered by 2024.
Ship related operations will also be strictly regulated. According to the Regulations, those engaged in relevant operations of ships shall abide by relevant operating procedures, take necessary pollution prevention and control measures, and deal with pollutants produced in the course of operations. Prior to the commencement of operation activities, information such as operation time and operation content shall be reported to the competent department of ship pollution prevention and control.
What about emergencies? According to the Regulations, government departments and relevant units should strengthen emergency capacity building, including the establishment of emergency response plan and the regular organization of drills, unified deployment and use of emergency facilities and equipment. It prohibits the use of dispersant in Shanghai's navigable inland waters and marine nature reserves and other special protection areas.
Reprinted from: China Transportation News Network