Guidelines on design and construction to facilitate sediment control on ships (G12)
THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION COMMITTEE,
RECALLING Article 38(a) of the Convention on the International Maritime Organization concerning the functions of the Marine Environment Protection Committee conferred upon it by the international conventions for the prevention and control of marine pollution,
RECALLING ALSO that the International Conference on Ballast Water Management for Ships held in February 2004 adopted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments, 2004 (the Ballast Water Management Convention) together with four Conference resolutions,
NOTING that Regulation A-2 of the Ballast Water Management Convention requires that discharge of ballast water shall only be conducted through Ballast Water Management in accordance with the provisions of the Annex to the Convention,
NOTING FURTHER that Regulation B-5.2 of the Ballast Water Management Convention provides that, ships constructed in or after 2009 should, without compromising safety or operational efficiency, be designed and constructed with a view to minimize the uptake and undesirable entrapment of sediments, facilitate removal of sediments, and provide safe access to allow for sediment removal and sampling taking into account Guidelines developed by the Organization,
NOTING ALSO that resolution 1 adopted by the International Conference on Ballast Water Management for Ships invited the Organization to develop these Guidelines as a matter of urgency,
HAVING CONSIDERED, at its fifty-fifth session, the draft Guidelines on design and construction to facilitate sediment control on ships developed by the Ballast Water Working Group, and the recommendation made by the Sub-Committee on Bulk Liquids and Gases at its tenth session,
- ADOPTS the Guidelines on design and construction to facilitate sediment control on ships as set out in the Annex to this resolution;
- INVITES Governments to apply the Guidelines as soon as possible, or when the Convention becomes applicable to them; and
- AGREES to keep the Guidelines under review.