Ray Smuts
SOUTH AFRICA finds itself in the invidious position of not having in place the necessary legislation or access to funding in the event of a major marine oil pollution disaster, which explains why the Department of Environmental Affairs and the South African Maritime Safety Authority have joined forces to do something about it.
It emerged at a conference organised by Cape Nature Conservation in the Mother City last week that the department and SAMSA have decided to appoint consultants out of concern at the state of affairs.
Experts pointed out that Cape Town was particularly vulnerable to oil spills as tankers discharged crude oil for the Milnerton oil refinery in Table Bay and Saldanha Bay.
What is more, the South African coastline is adjacent to one of the world's major shipping lanes and has been assailed by more serious oil pollution events than that of any other country in the southern hemisphere.
It was pointed out that Cape Town escaped lightly from spills from the Apollo Sea in 1994 and Treasure earlier this year - the latter involving coastline pollution and the world's biggest rescue of oil-saturated penguins.
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