A Philippine freighter was fined 200,000 yuan (31,300 U.S. dollars) for river pollution on Tuesday in Taicang City, east China's Jiangsu Province.
The freighter "Western Durban" was caught discharging oil pollutants into the Yangtze River on April 9, when parking at a port. To keep the pollution under control, relevant departments spend five hours absorbing the oil contamination with felts.
Later investigation showed the oil waste collection devices on the freighter went wrong.
This case is the third pollution cases of foreign vessels in Jiangsu since March. The second and third cases all happened in Zhangjiagang City, involving a Panamanian freighter and a Cypriot one respectively.
The Cypriot freight that illegally discharged sewage into river in March was fined 28,000 yuan (4,394 U.S. dollars) and further investigation on the Panamanian freighter found polluting water on Sunday is still ongoing.
Sewage and oil contamination are often seen discharged from vessels into the Yangtze River, and it is because many mariners do not realize the importance to protect the environment, said local maritime safety administration.
"So far, devices to deal with oil-polluted water and sewage are installed in most vessels when they are built. The cost is so low that you can even ignore it. Mariners will not stop using the devices due to cost concern, but poor maintenance will lead to defective operation. Another thing is that crew members may fail to properly operate the devices and they do not close some parts as they should, so oil contamination and sewage will directly be discharged into the Yangtze River. Generally speaking, now some crew members do not have a strong awareness of environmental protection," said Xue Huaiwen, an official from Zhangjiagang Maritime Safety Administration.
The local maritime safety administration said they will step up their efforts to publicize the knowledge in the field and strictly conduct inspection.
Sources:cctvplus
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