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Open-loop waste water discharge 'will come back to haunt us': Precious boss HashimOpen-loop waste water discharge 'will come back to haunt us': Precious boss Hashim

As the battle lines continue to be drawn over exhaust gas cleaning systems on ships Precious Shipping md Khalid Hashim warns that the discharge waste water from open-loop scrubbers “will comeback to haunt us”.

Marcus Hand, Editor

February 11, 2019

1 Min Read
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In Precious Shipping's annual review Hashim reiterated his stand against scrubbers as a way of complying with the IMO's 0.5% sulphur cap in 2020 which he described as “transferring the pollution from the sky into the seas”.

Hashim drew attention to literature such as the The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History a non-fiction book which argues that man’s activity is acidifying the oceans threatening the world's coral reefs.

“At some point in time, dumping toxic/sulphuric waste water from ‘open loop scrubbers’ into the oceans will come back to haunt us with such ships being banned from pumping their toxic waste water into our oceans/seas,” he warned.

Read more: Open-loop scrubbers – an own goal for the shipping industry

Hashim noted that Singapore and China along with a number of states in Asia Europe, Middle East and the Americas had announced in port or coastal bans on open-loop scrubber wash water discharge, something he likened to the non-smoking sections in the past on aircraft.

“How long will it be before the world realizes that it would be best to ban the dumping of waste water generated by ‘open loop scrubbers’ anywhere in the oceans/seas?

“It’s like saying that a small portion of an aircraft (territorial waters of any country/port) is declared as a ‘non smoking’ zone whilst the rest of the aircraft (oceans/seas) are designated as an unrestricted smoking zone, and we know how that ended!”

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Precious Shipping

About the Author

Marcus Hand

Editor

Marcus Hand is the editor of Seatrade Maritime News and a dedicated maritime journalist with over two decades of experience covering the shipping industry in Asia.

Marcus is also an experienced industry commentator and has chaired many conferences and round tables. Before joining Seatrade at the beginning of 2010, Marcus worked for the shipping industry journal Lloyd's List for a decade and before that the Singapore Business Times covering shipping and aviation.

In November 2022, Marcus was announced as a member of the Board of Advisors to the Singapore Journal of Maritime Talent and Technology (SJMTT) to help bring together thought leadership around the key areas of talent and technology.

Marcus is the founder of the Seatrade Maritime Podcast that delivers commentary, opinions and conversations on shipping's most important topics.

Conferences & Webinars

Marcus Hand regularly moderates at international maritime events. Below you’ll find a list of selected past conferences and webinars.

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