Biomechanics and Medicine in Swimming XI

BiomechanicsandmedicineinswimmingXi
A Conceptual Paper on the Benefits of a Non-
Governmental Search and Rescue Organization
Wengelin, M. 1 , de Wet, t. 2
1Lund University, Department of Service Management, Helsingborg, Sweden
2National Lake Rescue Institute, Kampala, Uganda
This conceptual paper aims at discussing the characteristics of and differences
between modern Western independent SAR institutions and
the initiatives that have been taken in developing countries. It highlights
the benefits of the non-governmental SAR organization, not only to
provide search and rescue capacity, but also to be a vehicle of progress
and change.
Key words: search and rescue, safety at sea, poverty reduction
IntroductIon
Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) is a state responsibility covered in
international regulations such as the United Nations Convention on
Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SO-
LAS) and the 1979 SAR Convention. UNCLOS for example, says that
every State must require the master of a ship flying its flag to render
assistance to any person found at sea in danger of being lost and to proceed
to the rescue of persons in distress. Furthermore, it requires every
coastal State to promote the establishment, operation and maintenance
of an adequate and effective search and rescue service regarding safety
on and over the sea and, where circumstances require, by way of mutual
regional arrangements, to co-operate with neighbouring States for this
purpose. In this way, UNCLOS provides the legal framework for action.
However, the details of search and rescue obligations are to be found
in various International Maritime Organization (IMO) Conventions.
The Search and Rescue (SAR) Convention of 1979 gives a clear
definition of the term “rescue”. It involves not only “an operation to retrieve
persons in distress, provide for their initial medical or other needs” but
also to “deliver them to a place of safety”. This obligation to initiate action
is activated once the responsible authorities of a State Party receive information
that any person is, or appears to be, in distress at sea. It further
states that, once a State Party has accepted responsibility to provide
search and rescue services for a specified area, it is obliged to use search
and rescue units and other available facilities for providing assistance
to anyone in distress at sea, and that such assistance is to be provided
“regardless of the nationality or status of such a person or the circumstances in
which that person is found”.
The Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) spells out the obligation
on ships’ masters to render assistance. It says:
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“The master of a ship at sea which is in a position to be able to
provide assistance, on receiving a signal from any source that
persons are in distress at sea is bound to proceed with all speed
to their assistance, if possible informing them or the search and
rescue service that the ship is doing so.”
Elsewhere, it stipulates that contracting Governments should undertake
measures “to ensure that necessary arrangements are made for the rescue of
persons in distress at sea around its coasts.”
In most of the developed world, with a high level of commercial traffic
and leisure boating, this responsibility is handled by a combination of
governmental organizations (Coast Guard, Naval units, Marine Police,
Pilots etc) and non-governmental SAR specialists like the Royal National
Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) of the Netherlands, The German Sea
Rescue Society (DGzRS) and the Swedish Sea Rescue Society (SSRS).
In the developing world this is not usually the case. The SAR is in many
cases covered by a small and not always operative navy in combination
with Coast Guard in areas with commercial traffic or areas with national
strategic importance. In areas with a high density of tourism there might
be found occasional SAR units specialized in taking care of tourism
related accidents like scuba diving cases (Egypt, Red Sea) with a focus
on medical evacuation. With the main part of the commercial traffic and
tourism areas basically taken care of, there is one large group of seafarers
left. Who is looking out for the individual, local, artisanal small-scale
fisherman in the small boat, outrigger or canoe?
“In some countries little consideration is given to SAR services for
small scale or artisanal fishermen due to insufficient awareness,
lack of resources, lack of personnel knowledgeable about marine
safety problems, lack of suitable craft, geographical considerations
(e.g. numerous remote islands), inadequate technical land institutional
infrastructure and other reasons. Because many fishermen
are not politically powerful, and because there are no compelling
statistics on losses, this issue is often overlooked though,
more recently, fishermen have become more active in pushing such
services or organizing them on their own.” The International Labor
Organization (ILO 1999)
Competing with urgent issues such as combating diseases like AIDS
and malaria, environmental problems, insufficient infrastructure and
investments in the military due to internal or regional instability, the
investments in a functional SAR network that reaches the outback fishing
village is not high on the priority list. It is also not unusual that a
most urgent need for and responsibility for SAR is a borderline problem
somehow situated between different ministries, as is even the case in the
international arena, a Department of Shipping (or the IMO) on the one
hand and a Department of Fishing or Fishing Authority Organization
on the other. It is furthermore common to categorize maritime search
and rescue as being the most expensive method of saving lives at sea.
This is, however, a very limited view on SAR and is usually put forward
by non SAR professionals. SAR as an operation is the last resort; that
is, carrying out search and rescue; to find and save a person in distress.
Isolated, this can be seen as a costly exercise, and if focusing on high
tech operations with helicopters and rescue cruisers it is certainly rather
expensive. But there is another side of the coin. A SAR organization
and especially non-governmental ones, works actively to avoid SAR
operations through activities like education, information, training, and
awareness campaigns. These are activities acknowledged as important
for safety at sea (ibid), and should be an integrated part of a SAR system.
A governmental SAR organization, where SAR usually is one of
many tasks, can use the power of regulations when such are in place. A
non-governmental organization works more closely with the community,
often actively supported by the community where it is based. From
this perspective SAR is more broadly defined; saving lives starts with
knowledge and training, and the costs of a SAR organization are thus
seen in another light. The specialized competence embedded in a SAR
organization is beneficial through the entire chain of “saving lives”, from
promoting life jackets to actually searching and rescuing.
The purposes of this paper are thus i) to highlight the role of the
SAR organization (especially non-governmental) within the broader
perspective of life saving and poverty reduction, ii) to describe the function
of the typical non-governmental SAR organization, and iii) to describe
the case study of the National Lake Rescue Institute (NLRI, the
non-governmental SAR organization in Uganda).
Methods
This paper is based on qualitative evaluation of an existing system
of SAR organized by the National Lake Rescue Institute of Uganda
(NLRI). It is also an evaluation of the operation of this organization as a
Non-Governmental Organization as compared to SAR organizations in
developed countries as well as governmental agencies. The material used