Kenya ups marine oil spill preparedness

By John Oyuke

Kenya has revised its National Oil Spill Response Contingency Plan (NOSRCP) to ensure proper management and handling of any emergency spills.

Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA) says the revised and updated document would be ready for approval before the end of the year.

The emergency plan document spells out the use of oil dispersants and lists Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) that show all the coastal sensitive resources and which of these sites would have to be prioritised for protection.

KMA Director General Nancy Karigithu said the updated emergency plan has defined the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders.

"The NOSRCP for Kenya has an own emergency plan which contains a spill management structure with trained specialists and well defined policies and strategies," she said.

Minimum Side Effects

The emergency oil spill plan for Kenya is revised yearly to address recurrent changes in personnel and in responsibilities of agencies at Governmental level.

Karigithu said Kenya is preparing a coastline marine atlas of all ESA to enable marine authorities handle an oil spill with minimum side effects to marine flora and fauna.

The Atlas will show mangroves, estuaries, aqua culture sites, reefs, dunes, birds and turtles.

"Each item will be assigned an Environmental Index to indicate its importance," said Karigithu, adding that policy on the use of oil dispersants would define where they might be used in the event of an emergency oil spill.

The use of the dispersants, she explained, would depend on the location of the spill, prevailing climatic conditions, ocean currents, the depth of the water, marine species present at that location and on the need to prevent the oil from reaching the coastline, where important resources need to be protected.

Karigithu was speaking on the sidelines of a GEF-Western Indian Ocean Marine Highway Development and Coastal and Marine Contamination Prevention Project workshop in Mombasa.

The workshop held last week drew participants from South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and the Reunion Island.

All countries are required under international laws to have a NOSRCP to provide a national framework for responding to oil spills and protecting the coastal resources.