Alla Petrova, BC, Riga, 12.10.2010.
Cruise ship operators are deman ding that harbors on the Baltic Sea agree to improvements in facilities for receiving an d processing waste water, such improvements would be a condition to their agreement to a deman d by the International Maritime Organ ization (IMO) for a complete ban on dumping sewage in the Baltic from 2013, Helsingin San omat reports.
"The waste water rule would take effect as soon as there is sufficient capacity. This will not necessarily happen by 2013 or 2018," says Anita Mäkinen, chief of the environmental unit at the Finnish Tran sport Safety Agency.
In addition to regular car ferry traffic, about 350 international cruise ships sail the Baltic each year. Such cruises are especially popular among tourists from the United States, informs LETA.
Such a total ban would be unique in the world. However, not even the collective will of all nine countries on the Baltic Sea an d the IMO countries that supported them is enough. The Baltic Sea countries agreed on common legislation at a ministerial meeting of the Baltic Sea Protection Commission Helcom held in Moscow on May.
"In Moscow agreement was reached on how capacity at harbours would be improved, an d what the timetable would be. However, the harbours belong to cities or to private compan ies, so we face a challenge on how to target the pressure", Mäkinen says.
If the systems in the harbors are put into shape, an d the law is implemented, then pressure for similar arran gements in other seas will grow.
"The large shipping lines were afraid that this would be approved, because now other sea areas in the world might make similar deman ds", Mäkinen notes.
The Mediterran ean countries, as well as Can ada, for instan ce, were in favor of the Baltic Sea rules at the IMO meeting in late September.
"In the Baltic Sea, collecting waste water is especially importan t because of eutrophication. The Mediterran ean , Alaska, an d the Caribbean have nutrient problems or hygiene reasons to promote similar legislation", Mäkinen says.
Of the ports on the Baltic, only Helsinki, Stockholm, an d Visby on the Swedish islan d of Gotlan d have the sewage systems required by the shipping lines.
"Usually ships are in port for only a few hours. In other harbors an entire fleet of septic pumper trucks are needed, an d that is not a good solution", Mäkinen says.
The environmental group WWF ascertained in late September that much of the waste water from cruise ships is discharged untreated into the Baltic Sea. This is not illegal if it happens at a sufficient distan ce from shore.
Passenger vessels – mainly cruise liners an d car ferries – are like small villages carrying between 2,000 an d 5,000 passengers an d crew at a time. About 90 million passengers make stops at the large harbours of the Baltic Sea each year.
"Cruise lines an d harbour cities earn millions of euros. They should also solve their environmental problems", says Van essa Klötzer, maritime expert of WWF.
According to WWF's calculations, the number of cruise passengers in the Baltic Sea has tripled to more than three million in the past decade.
The organ ization estimates that the 415,000 guests who visit Stockholm alone bring EUR 54 million to the city each year.
This year only half of the 240 cruise ships visiting Stockholm have had their waste water removed in port. In Helsinki about two thirds of the approximately 250 cruise liners have done so.
