With Blue Economy, International Maritime Day will concern us more

-September 30. The commemoration has two distinctive aspects that have developed over time, the original intention being to enhance international cooperation in marine safety, especially in distress situations without evaluating the ‘friendliness’ of the country to which the distressed vessel belongs. It is part of the corpus of what is known as international humanitarian law developed during the past century.

While this day is strongly linked to maritime activity, it is distinct from issues linked to seafarers unions, where in the past there have been pressures on employing local people among those who regularly use our ports, etc. |The maritime day is tied to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) with a founding United Nations convention entering into force in 1958 and thus IMO came into being the following year. Even with strategic rivalry in what was known as the Cold War, global humanitarian law was developing.

The part of the convention which has gradually become important to Tanzania is what an IMO write up says are technical matters, like the highest practicable standards in matters concerning maritime safety, efficiency of navigation and prevention and control of marine pollution from ships. There have been glaring incidents on the past where coastal zones aren’t safe from waste transported aboard large ships and looking for points of disposal. It is a market of sorts, fraught with organised crime connections, etc.

To foster higher accountability in this mechanism, the IMO member states audit scheme came into force on 1 January 2016, increasingly playing a key role in supporting effective implementation of the organization’s mandate by providing a comprehensive and objective assessment of how effectively it administers mandatory IMO instruments, where pollution control and related issues is the key. As we open more of our coastal tourism areas to operations of international firms, auditing will acutely needed.

With projects like the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) being implemented, starting to receive giant tankers loading oil and clearing residue somewhere, it is not far off for us to start being engaged more forthrightly. It is hence relevant to take notice that both in tourism and in energy sector development we aren’t far from involvement in practices that are negative either to maritime safety or to environmental protection. We aren’t there yet but marking this international day is a reminder that we aren’t an island in the matter, as threats in our vicinity touching on maritime safety or political stability spill over this way.

There was for instance a piracy problem along the coast of Somalia a decade or so ago, which troubled shipping operators with ridiculous ransoms paid to gun toting youths, until the UK Navy and others decided to sweep the groups off the vicinity of the ships. The Mozambican flare up is less a rebellion in the northern part as a conquest by pirates to extract ransom from gas operators. All these are maritime woes to which enhanced international cooperation has had to be mobilised, for threats didn’t arise from within the Mozambican economic or social mix but maritime conveyed threats from its northern reaches..