OIL POLLUTION AROUND THE COASTAL WATERS OF SINGAPORE
MARIA GOH
MARIA GOH
Citations
Altmetric:
Alternative Title
Abstract
Over the past three decades, ship-generated marine pollution has received national and international attention. Oil is the main marine pollutant, and marine transportation, the major source of oil spills in the world. The geographical configuration of Singapore and her status of being the busiest port in the world increases her vulnerability to oil pollution. In this study, oil pollution refers to the damaging effects of oil on the marine environment due to human activities. This Academic Exercise attempts to provide an overview of oil pollution in Singapore’s coastal waters. Ship-generated sources of oil pollution incidents are found to be more significant than land-based sources. The majority of these vessel-source oil pollution incidents are due to careless bunkering practices. However, the major incidents, which require the mobilisation of national resources such as the PSA, Ministry of the Environment, and the oil companies for cleaning up procedures, are largely caused by collisions and groundings. Over the last 15 years or so, there has been a general decline in the frequency of oil pollution incidents. This trend is likely to continue through the effective implementation and enforcement of legislations and control measures. This, nevertheless, will not ensure the elimination of such casualties unless the element of human error or negligence, which has been identified to be the main cause of oil pollution incidents, is eliminated. The ecological impacts of oil pollution range from aesthetically unpleasing shores to serious aquatic animal mortalities. Sea birds, plankton, intertidal and benthic organisms are usually killed by the oil spills. However, free-moving fish and marine mammals are normally unaffected as they can swim away from the affected areas. So far, there has been no oil pollution incidents that resulted in any known severe ecological impacts except for the Stolt Avance case in 1987 where some of the aquaculture farms were affected. The economic impacts of oil pollution include the loss of earnings for commercial fishermen, operators of coastal resorts, recreational facilities, tourist industry as well as the cost of cleaning up the oil spill. Of these, the cost of cleaning up the oil spills and compensation claims are the more significant losses in the case of Singapore. The stringent legislations, control measures and effective enforcement by the government agencies, statutory boards, oil companies and others contributed to the low level of oil pollution around the coastal waters of Singapore. The level of oil and grease in Singapore's coastal waters are well within even the most stringent limits set by the United States. Besides, Singapore is also actively committed in regional co-operation with regards to the control of oil pollution. This is because of her belief that such co-operative efforts will further enhance the effectiveness of the control.
Keywords
Source Title
Publisher
Series/Report No.
Collections
Rights
Date
1990
DOI
Type
Thesis