KENYAN MARITIME AUTHORITIES DETAIN CCCC VESSEL SUSPECTED IN REEF DESTRUCTION
(Posted 27th October 2014)
Information received from sources in Mombasa appears to confirm that the dredger, reported to have illegally taken out sand from the award winning Diani beaches last week, has been detained in port by maritime authorities for further investigations. Under pressure by the public, especially after a whirlwind social media campaign, has the Kenya Port Authority, which initially denied any knowledge of the vessels’ existence and activities, also admitted that the ship was known and had been under their contract.
The admission and confirmation that KPA had purportedly given the ship permission to ‘test’ might also end the ports authority in court as environmentalists have already vowed to ‘sue the daylight out of them’.
The China Communications Construction Company, incidentally blacklisted by the World Bank over a range or similar and other allegations up to January 2017, is up to the neck involved in constructing the new Lamu port and the new Standard Gauge Railway and the shenanigans of the crew last week, which on several occasions extracted sand from the seabed and according to Diani based diving sources cause damage to the reef, is thought to cause acute embarrassment to both the Kenyan and the Chinese governments.
The ship and owners, now under investigation by Kenyan maritime authorities, have prompted local conservation NGO’s to also checking if they can be part of a legal case in the public interest to highlight the irresponsible practices of a company which, through the construction contracts it holds, could cause further irreparable damage to many of Kenya’s marine and land biodiversity hotspots.
KPA in a brief statement further confirmed that the dredger has been in Kenyan waters for some three years and allegations are now surfacing again that it was this ship which was responsible for reef destruction near Shelly Beach when berth 19 was constructed and sand was, again allegedly, illegally extracted.
Environmental officials appear to appreciate the evidence handed to them by south coast sources, including aerial pictures taken, showing the dredger in position, loading sand from the seabed and causing the water to cloud which reportedly killed many fish in the immediate vicinity.
‘If they try to buy their way out of this, they will see us in court with private prosecution. This is a debacle of the highest order even for the Kenyan government because they contracted a company which the World Bank has black listed for many years to come. It raises a lot of questions how such a company will respect our environmental protection laws and what oversight will be needed to prevent similar incidents. The coast line is so long and when that ship is sent to Lamu they can suck out sand anywhere, who is there to control it. I can only thank all those who helped to expose it and we hope that the crew will be prosecuted and when found guilty jailed and fined and the vessel confiscated. Only a few weeks ago did President Kenyatta order a drug smuggling ship to be blown up. How about also ordering this environmental crime ship to be treated the same way. We are watching’ added a regular conservation source from Kenya as progressively, over the past few days, added information was dug up on the vessels’ past movements and handed to the relevant authorities. Hotel and other tourism associations have in this case worked hand in hand with hotel owners and business operators along the Diani beaches and a mechanism is now in place to report any future such incidents immediately and raise the proper alarms.
2 Responses
Its great to have this social media ‘storm’ to help apply pressure to apply the regulations in Kenya. It seems the Kenya Maritime Authority (KMA), and National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) are responding and may hold the company (from China) and its client (the Kenya Ports Authority) to account.
But note that the issue of the origin of the dredger, so prominent in the headlines and messages, may be a red herring – the last similar dredging incident was in July 2011, when the dredging vessel Mv Volvox Delta Utrecht, owned by M/s Van Oord Dreding and Marine Contractors of the Netherland was contracted by the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) to dredge the main port. A hue and cry, spreadheaded by Kenya Wildlife Service, the Fisheries Dept., fishermen and citizens groups lead NEMA to make KPA and its dredging contractor to go the distance and dump the dredge spoil at regulation distances offshore.
The same could/should happen in this case, in which KPA and its contractor should be held to account for conducting dredging outside of the regulations, and its curious why they should have chosen to do it in such public visibility and where there are so many stakeholders that would object!!
An important lesson from the 2011 case. The benefits from enforcing the dredge spoil dumping regulations (farther offshore) were nearly entirely negated by dredging of the actual ship channel, which kicked off up so much sediment that the reefs north of the channel showed visible impacts of sedimentation for months after.
The ship channel in the Manda/Lamu port is wider and shallower, and with more fine sediment than that of Mombasa. So dredging of the channel, if not done with the highest levels of control, may create so much sedimentation that even the best operations within the port and offshore dumping may not matter so much.
Hopefully this focus on KPA and its dredging contractors will result in greater awareness and vigilance in Lamu stakeholders, and in NEMA, to ensure the the EIA process and enforcement are rigidly implemented!!!
The dredging is one thing, we are talking about the sand harvesting to extend Mombasa harbor which took place after 2011. Two years ago when I reported this illegal sand harvesting it was completely ignored and all the focus of some so-called “conservation”groups was to prevent the creation of the Waa Whale Shark Research & Discovery Center. During the NEMA tribunal hearing of the aforesaid project, a site visit was conducted and the proponent (SeaQuarium LTD) pointed out that the dredger (who was operating barely a kilometer South East of the site) was doing considerable damage to the coral reef by siltation. The local coral research and conservation organization CORDIO’s CEO David Obura who calls himself an environmental “watch dog” was there to oppose the whale shark project while overlooking the drege in full operation together with the entire NEMA tribunal. When questioned why he (Obura) had done nothing despite knowing about the sand harvesting project, (he is a NEMA-licensed Marine EIA expert after all) he simply stated “what has the proponent SeaQuarium done? Nothing themselves” It was then pointed out to him by the County Comissioner and the MP Honorable Madam Chidzuga who were present that SeaQuarium had reported the matter several times and that the sand harvesting project was jeopardizing the whale shark project as well. Some watch dogs we have..
Great that it’s finally taken serious! The Chinese vessel was a one time (8hrs) operation, the previous Dutch (it’s NOT the same vessel) dredger operated day and night for more than a year, right outside Tiwi river mouth! This without any EIA and NEMA did nothing to intervene despite having a report from us a week after it started. KPA had agreed to compensate the fishermen who suffered huge losses due to declined catch for more than a year, nothing has been paid. I know for a fact that KPA plan to harvest more sand for phase 2 of the extension project, let’s hope all this publicity will make sure it doesn’t happen outside Africa’s NO 1 voted beach..