Safety at Sea: Maritime OSR and Risk Assessment

Project Summary 

The Albanian preparedness and response system require an interinstitutional coordination platform including both public and private resources, for response to emergencies resulting or likely to result in the spillage of oil and/or other Hazardous Noxious Substances (HNS) into the marine environment. Despite the progress to date there is still need to complete the national legal framework in line with EU requirements on prevention, preparedness and response in case of accidental maritime pollution by oil and other hazardous substances and drafting of regulations and manuals for implementing the requirements from all parties responsible in the implementation of the National Contingency Plan. To address such gaps, and supported financially by the Croatian Government, UNDP in partnership with the Ministry of Infrastructure & Energy and the Ministry of Tourism & Environment, implemented the project: “Management of marine and coastline pollution for increased Safety at Sea and Ports in line with EU Maritime Law and Policy” to address the needs for an interinstitutional coordination platform of the Albanian preparedness and response to emergencies, spillage of oil and other hazardous substances into the marine environment.

Overall Objective 

To establish a mutual network for the prevention of risks and management of emergencies, with a view to reducing the risk of pollution of marine environment and to strengthening the capacity of the communities in Albania to respond to environmental and technological hazards caused by maritime incidents resulting or likely to result in spills of oil and/or other hazardous and noxious substances (HNS).

Specific objectives 

  • To improve coordination of response capacities in the Albania through training of command personnel, operational staff and other actors involved in the implementation of contingency plans and in pollution preparedness and response, and through expanding their knowledge and decision-making capabilities.
  • To enable adoption of national maritime quality standards and strengthen capacities on implementation of the Contingency Plan at local level.

The main distinct areas of development where project focused:

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy (MoIE), Ministry of Tourism and Environment) MoTE, Intersectorial Maritime Operational Center (IMOC) and main port authorities.

Accomplishments

Since its launch on 19th June 2019, the main progress benchmarks and achievements mark the followings:

  • Engagement and synergies with involved institutions (Ministry of Tourism and Environment, Ministry of Infrastructure and Energy, General Maritime Directorate, Interinstitutional Maritime Operational Centre, port authorities, private ports, Harbor Master Office (Durres port) and other stakeholders, etc.
  • The best senior experts, national as well as well-known international expertise were mobilized and committed. The national consultants and ATRAC (Croatian Adriatic Training and Research Center) were contracted with the main tasks to analyze the legal and institutional capacities, estimate existing national contingency planning needs, analyses inputs to oil spills risk assessment as well as with recommendations for needful updates of the relevant scope for improvement of the National Contingency Plan. ATRAC expertise and the national consultants consolidated very significant cooperation and worked together to fulfill all the project activities. Teaming up these resources, UNDP enabled to conduct a rapid assessment of the baseline situation on cargo and Oil Spill Preparedness and Respone (OSPR) logistic of commercial and public of Albanian Ports.
  • Thus, the project enabled accomplishment of two important reports/ studies: an analyses and assessment of the legislation and institutional capacities of the Republic of Albania, including recommendations for improvements, changes and amendments respectively of the National Contingency Plan, and guidelines for defining strategies and mechanism for response to marine pollution; as well as an Assessment of the risk of pollution from marine oil and HNS (Hazardous Noxious Substances) spills in Albanian ports and sea waters; Both reports are being translated in the Albanian language and will be shared with you soon.
  • The national team and ATRAC have finalized the report on Risk Assessment, considering all Albanian ports and providing recommendations. The report translated in Albanian was shared with all key institutions At least 25 persons trained on recovering spilled oil and cleaning polluted shorelines ; training and capacities building was another main pillar of the project and under this component officials of the Ministry of Infrastructure & Energy and from the Durres Port Authority are trained on hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) in Rijeka, Croatia, sharing the project findings and receiving inputs and views from the actors involved with the response to oil spilling and preparedness.; A total of seven (7) lectures were delivered in accordance with the Course programme presented by ATRAC lecturers, varying form overview of spill response, operational planning, response management and organization, to, behavior and fate of an oil spill, spill assessment, oil spill response options, use of dispersants, termination of response & post-incident debriefing.
  • In addition a Table-Top exercise was organized in Durres with focus on testing response measures to maritime oil spill, with attendance form diverse target groups representatives and specialists whose role and functions relate to OSRP system and to maritime safety, especially: specialists of the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure (MoEI), the maritime specialists at the ports of Durrës, Vlora, Saranda, Shengjin, Petrolifera-Vlora, Porto Romano, IMOC, the General Marine Directorate, emergency units within the Prefectures of Shkodra, Lezha, Durres, Tirana, Vlora and Fier, and the Navy Force Command.
  • Participation and presentation of the project on 4th Adriatic Conference on spill prevention / ADRIASPILLCON 2019, Croatia, June 2019, getting involved with the regional exchange of experience with partner and specialized institutions, communicating Oil Spill Response and Preparedness (OSRP) management experiences, methodologies and information as important tools for networking, transfer of lessons, interchange and training for the stakeholder groups of the maritime OSRP sector; Preparation of the Curriculum of Oil Spill
  • Response Training Course has been carried out through a participatory process, counseled by ATRAC and assisted with main Albanian national consultants through inputs and exchanges from various stakeholders of the sector. In this regard, a three-level training model was followed: Level One: Operational staff (First Responders); Level Two: Supervisors and on-scene commanders; Level Three: Senior management staff (Administrators and Senior Managers)
  • Due to COVID19 situation, the training program was adopted into online format and organized as webinar on 27th May 2020 in order to teach the trainees their responsibilities during an oil spill response organization and how to effectively respond to an oil spill through the deployment of equipment and resources at regional or national levels.
  • The most demanding needs for equipment and means which help to react in case of oil spilling were accordingly considered with the limited project budged and 60 Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) and one Hot Pressure Machine have been purchased for the main Albanian ports and delivered to respective authorities.
  • Awareness, communication, education and information activities in the field of the OSRP, marine pollution prevention and control, are considered as complex undertaking especially in view of diverse groups of stakeholders and partners involved and in charged with respective tasks in this sector. The project designed and developed the most appropriate actions to inform the target groups about the importance of the clean and controlled maritime resources, thereby strengthening their support towards the work of the authorities in the sector. The main branding actions developed and accomplished by the project, intended to increase the recognition amongst the target groups of the population by placing the respective logos and slogan, recalling for marine pollution prevention and control in such a way that the marine environment protection becomes familiar through repetition of those means.
  • The slogan we applied is: “Siguri Detare dhe Det i Paster” [Maritime Safety and Clean Sea]. Since the project start, there are produced information materials like banner, rollup, and leaflet with information on the project; a project brochure featuring news and collecting respective inputs from the sector stakeholders & partners; Copybook calendars, engraved the symbol of a maritime biota indicator such as Carreta Carreta; Pens were branded and intended to use in seminars, workshops, training events; Coveralls waterproof for the main Albanian harbors’ personnel are produced branded with project logos and awareness messages.
  • Follow up proposals for sector on marine coastline pollution, increased safety at sea and ports are prepared.

Oil spilled in the Adriatic from the ships

Impact

START DATE

July 2017

END DATE

December 2022

STATUS

Completed

PROJECT OFFICE

Albania

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER

United Nations Development Programme

DONORS

GOVERNMENT OF CROATIA

UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS

$499,214

DELIVERY IN PREVIOUS YEARS

2018$59,719

2019$77,863

2020$106,465

2021$0

2022$0

Full Project information