Author: Chief Eng. Walid Alhannini head of Port state Control Division. Jordan Maritime Commission /Jordan- AqabaRegion: Red Sea & Gulf of Aden

Day of presentation: 13 Nov. 2014

VIII BRAZILIAN SEMINAR ON

BALLAST WATER&

4th GEF-UNDP-IMO GloBallast Global Project Task Force

Arraial do Cabo, Brazil10-14 November 2014

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Presentation of Jordan about the BWM activities at the National level for the period 2012 – 2014 , future challenges & needs.

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Jordan is landlocked except at its southern extremity, where nearly twenty-six kilometres of shoreline along the Gulf of Aqaba provide access to the Red Sea. And containing Aqaba Ports. Three countries are sharing Aqaba gulf with Jordan:Saudi Arabia , Egypt & Israel.

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The port of Aqaba lies at the top of the Gulf of Aqaba at the Red Sea, and it is the only main commercial port in Jordan with about 1400 commercial ship-calls annually.

The port of Aqaba consists of three Major areas:

1. Main port 2. Middle port zone (container port Zone) 3. Specialized ports and oil terminal

The Maritime Administration of Jordan is the ‘Jordanian Maritime Commission’ (JMC) and has its offices in Aqaba , the name was before May – 2014 Jordan Maritime Authority until Jordan government decided to change it to JMC.

•The Importance of the Ballast Water Issues to our Country is that the Gulf of Aqaba (the only window to the sea) is considered to be a closed special area .* So we are taking good care to Maintain the outstanding level of the Gulf of Aqaba where no increase in plankton and harmful organisms or invasive species result threw the Ballast water of the ships in Ballast water tanks so as not to harm the Marine environment, beaches, resorts and attractions.•Jordan Maritime Commission is sharing the responsibility of planning and applying the BWM activities with ASEZA (Aqaba Special Economic Zone Association) , which is a governmental body.

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JMC is the leading Agency for BWM with continuous cooperation with ASEZA/ Environment commission, till this moment, it wasn't recorded any invasive species issues through samples which were taken From sea water by Marine Science Station/University of Jordan & Yarmouk University

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- National BWM Committee consists of all related entities was formed in 2008- The First Globallast Regional Task Force Meeting in June 2009 - & Three workshops in BWM were Organized by: The Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA) in cooperation with the GloBallast Partnerships Project Coordination Unit - The third one (5 -7 May 2014) held in Jordan Maritime Commission headquarters in Aqaba city hosted & Supported by: GEF UNDP GloBallast Partnerships Project and IMO under the patronage of the Minister of transport, Chairman of the Maritime Commission.

- Regional Workshop in BWM Jeddah 19~21May2014 organized by (PERSGA)

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Objectives of the workshops :

1) provide a range of information and skills to participants to enable them to take appropriate steps in accordance with the different functions of the effective application of themes commitment and implementation of BWMC.

2) Enable participants to exchange experience with others, review and discuss common themes in addition to acquiring new skills pertaining to the subject of the workshop.

3) Provide an opportunity for all parties to cooperate with each other and establish a national cooperation networks.

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The Steps of BWM strategy of Jordan:1- Prepare a form of ballast record by JMC to be used in all the ships flying Jordan flag . And this is under process now.

2- Preparing BWM regulations , by direct translation of the regulations stated in the BWM convention into Arabic language with some modification to suit the local laws . Then after reviewing and approving them by the lawyers , in order to enter them into the National legislation to be applied on ground. This step is suspended now until the BWM convention reach the Entry into force level .

3- starting the training of PSC officers of Jordan Maritime commission at the correct way of applying the operational controls and other inspections required to be done onboard foreign ships calling Aqaba ports and Apply the provisions of the Convention. To be ready when the convention enter into force .

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4- Any Ship calling Aqaba and require to apply the provisions of BWM conventions is informed by PSCO’s since June 2014 that Jordan will be part of the convention soon , and that they must comply with the requirements from now , as when the convention enter into force , any Incompatibility will result in recording deficiency & maybe detention of the ship. 5- Keeping & strengthen the cooperation and relation with neighboring countries & regional organizations in the subject keeping the water of the red sea , and thus the gulf of Aqaba free of any harmful organisms & invasive species.

Jordan is doing all efforts to ensure that the BWM program will be permanent & continuous even after the GloBallast project ended. And this can be done by entering all the BWM regulations adopted by IMO into the National legislations to be force applied 11

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• Ratification of the Convention:• Jordan boosts Ballast Water Convention• 09/09/2014 The campaign for better implementation of IMO

conventions received a boost today when H.E. Mr Mazen Al-Homoud, Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the UK, met IMO Sec-Gen Sekimizu to deposit the instruments of accession to the Ballast Water Management Convention.

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Of course the circular which announce Jordan ratification stated that the BWM convention will not enter into force until 35% of the biggest world GT countries ratify the convention, and at the moment 32.54% is reached which means that we have to wait. And that what cause the decision makers in Jordan decided to delay Entering the BWM regulations into national legislations. But what is clear is that there is a political & governmental support for this matter from the highest levels in Jordan. And we have made the possible institutional arrangements represented by the governmental laboratories who are qualified to take and analyses samples from sea.

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General Remarks:•The BW reporting form has not been introduced yet in Jordan , but we are working on that and hope to be introduced soon.• Jordan (& the other regional countries) didn’t identify any area for ballast water exchange as all the red sea is considered to be special area , and we will depend on the ship documentation on this matter and the fact that they made the exchange outside Aqaba gulf.•For the ballast water risk assessment and sampling programs subjects , Jordan did that for scientific studies & research purposes done by Jordan & Yarmuk universities as mentioned above ,,,, and the good news is that the results were negative (i.e. nothing harmful).•Most of the small Jordan fleet are ships who have no ballast

systems due to its types . BUT >>>>>>>> 14

•Three ships build in 2013 , and launched in 2014 , registered under Jordanian flag and have a BWTS Of D2 Ultra violet type provided for them. All of them are Multi- purpose general cargo ships.

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- Regional Cooperation: As stated before , Jordan is a member state in the (PERSGA) , and we are active member participate in All PERSGA activities up to now , and sharing experience with other member states , and we have the honor that one of the big experts in the PERSEGA is Jordanian (DR. Salim AlMughrabi) who is participating with us .-PERSEGA sent us Regional Strategic Action Plan for the Control of Transfer of Harmful Aquatic Organisms and Pathogens (HAOP) in Ships` Ballast Water, which considered to be one of the most best plans when adopted and applied by PERSEGA member states . And in Jordan it is still under study & discussion , hoping to adopt it and reply PERSEGA soon. - We give our experience to the neighboring countries through a twining program such as Sudan , Djibouti & Somalia.

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Future Challenges and needs – SustainabilityThe Globallast partnerships project helped our country very well to spot the light into the expected dangers may occur at the gulf of Aqaba if the situation is still neglecting the invasive organisms issues may come with the ballast water loaded on ships ballast tanks calling Aqaba from World wide. And now we become familiar of the correct ways of sampling , analyzing & the deferent types of Harmful organisms founded in all sea waters.And we believe that we succeeded in putting our legs on the first steps of a long career to achieve our goals of protecting our gulf by efficient ways. And that is the best lesson learned from the project.The remaining hurdles and priorities in our country from my side of view is to spread the culture of BWM in all entities related to

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Give us the support to start the procedures of force apply the requirements of the convention as soon as possible. Also we hope that we get a proper grant & financial coverage from the project to procurement the required instruments & equipments needed for sampling and analyzing . And we hope that the project also help us start establishing a biofouling programme at the national level in Jordan.

At last we hope to reach the JMC vision :

“ toward clean and safe seas”

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Thank you for good listening

ANY QUESTIONS?19