A review of South Asia’s regional plan for oil and chemical pollution preparedness and response has been completed in Colombo, Sri Lanka (2-6 November). Participants from five countries in the region took part in a table-top exercise – testing the plan and developing a roadmap for its future implementation.
The activity comes under a Norwegian Development Cooperation Agency (NORAD) project promoting cooperation on marine pollution preparedness and response in South Asia. The participants represented the coastal Member States (Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) of the South Asia Co-operative Environment Programme (SACEP). IMO and SACEP facilitated the event, which was hosted by the Marine Environment Protection Authority of Sri Lanka. IMO was represented by Colleen O’Hagan.