Eritrea's Coastal Marine and Island Biodiversity Conservation Project

6. Coastal Infrastructures
6.1. Harbors and Maritime Routes
Apart from the natural small harbors and ‘Mersas’ Eritrea’s major ports are found in Massawa and Assab. Coastal villages such as Tio, Edi, Dahlak,
Ghel’alo have small ports and jetties that dock large ‘Sambucks’ which transport commodities and goods mainly from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
Due to geographical proximity to the remaining part of the country, most of the ship cargo reaches Massawa. In order to upgrade the capacity and
efficiency of the Port of Massawa, efforts are being made to expand its rise elevation and to upgrade its equipment to service larger cargo and container
vessels. In addition, Massawa is used occasionally to receive cruise ships with tourists and the area between Taulud Island and the mainland serves as a
mooring area for private cruising boat (mainly sailing boats) as there is no full service marina. Such a facility is planned in the future near Massawa
Island.
The international maritime routes of the Red Sea are derived from the routes marked on the nautical charts. Recently new routing measures have been
suggested by the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Introduction of new traffic scheme has been a subject
of negotiation for the three coastal states namely Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti. The scheme designates traffic routes from Bab El Mandeb to be divided
into two lanes; the bigger traffic to be through the Haycocks while the other passage through Abu Ali and Zuquar islands. The purpose of this traffic
routes is to improve safety in navigations.
In order to assure that maritime activities are carried out with due concern to environmental issues, the Port Authority has the vested power to take
measures to protect the port (a port covers a certain area of land & sea) from any kind of damage or pollution, to deal with vessels suspected of
discharging a marine pollutant and to refuse the storage of certain goods which are not convenient for handling and dangerous to human, property or
the environment.
6.1.1. Massawa and Assab Ports
Massawa Port is located on 15 0 37’’N and 39 0 29’’E. It is a natural harbor, built by the Turkish in 1655. From 1888 to 1941; it was expanded to the
current size during Italian occupation period and became a competitive port that can play an important role in commercial, trading, and economic and
communication developments along the Red Sea. The port is founded over an area of 204,057m 2 which consists of general-purpose berths, aprons, Port
Area open shed, warehouse, cold storage, open storage facilities container stacking area and truck area. There are 6 berths with an overall length
ranging from 80m to 210m and depth of 5.5m to 12m. These berths are normally used by ocean going vessels handling general cargo, bagged and bulk
cargo.
State of the Coast Eritrea, 2006-2007 41