Qatar: Workshop considers contingency plans for sea pollution
20th June 2012
A regional workshop on ‘national and regional hazardous and noxious substance (HNS) contingency plans’ took place recently in Doha.
Organised by the Permanent Committee for Emergency (PCE) of Ministry of Interior in close association with both the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC), the 4-day Workshop addressed "... the rapid growth witnessed by the region in recent times in economic and tourism activities as well as increased navigation activities necessitating early development of national and regional contingency plans to assist in mitigating the damage and the swift rescue operations by heeding lessons from past experiences,” said Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser al-Thani, Assistant Undersecretary for agriculture, animal wealth and fishery affairs, Ministry of Environment.
Patricia Charlebois, head of Pollution Response Section at IMO Marine Environment Division, stressed the organisation gave particular attention to such regional workshops, serving its aims promoting co-operation between different countries for capacity building and infrastructure development. Charlebois thanked Qatar for hosting the workshop and also MEMAC for organising it, hoping that similar workshops can be held in other parts of the world.
Cementing the Qatari commitment to mutual co-operation Director General of Public Security (DGPS) and head of PCE Staff, Major General Saad bin Jassim al-Khulaifi welcomed the attendees: “There is no doubt that the marine safety, protection of lives in the sea, prevention of marine pollution and controlling it, achievement of maritime security and implementation of the rescue work plans are matters of noble and lofty goals and all of us strive to achieve them through mutual co-operation and co-ordination,” he said.