Ballast Water rules edge closer

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has announced that the conditions for entry into force of the Ballast Water Management (BWM) Convention may have been met, following the convention’s ratification by three more countries in November 2015.

The convention, which will enter into force twelve months after the tonnage requirement is met, will require ships either not to carry ballast water or to treat it in order to get the number of living species in the water down to a set level, to prevent contamination of ecosystems.

Despite the compiled 2015 assessment tonnages, which were released in December, including some unverified data, the IMO revealed that the conditions might have been met by a very small margin after Morocco, Indonesia and Ghana ratified the convention.