Carriage, Handling and Storage of Dangerous Goods along

62 RECOMMENDATIONS
Institutional and Capacity Building
It is crucial that authorities are responsible for regulations and enforcement related to standards for
vessel design, construction and safety of life and protection of the environment. Some of these tasks
can be fulfilled by the classification society.
The Member Countries can adopt a practice of "port state control" 13 for inland vessels on the Mekong
River to guard against hazards posed by unsafe vessels. So authorities of the Member Countries can
inspect foreign-flagged vessels entering local ports to ensure compliance with national regulations or
agreed standards for safety and structural conditions.
Penalties for non-compliance or violations must be agreed upon jointly but established by the flag
state. Penalties can include removal of the current certificate, detaining the vessel, indictment,
warning, fine or imprisonment of the responsible person.
Authorities should provide training to make a team of nautical inspectors who will need to check if
barges comply with the regulations (like Port State Control for seagoing ships).
3.3.1.2 Navigation Equipment
Target group: All barges
RECOMMENDATION
Member Countries should establish minimum safety requirements for navigation equipment
including VHF, GPS, foghorn and electronic charts.
Challenge
There are no minimum safety requirements for navigation equipment onboard barges and night
navigation on the Mekong River is hazardous. On the upper stretches, it should not be allowed
because of the many rocky outcrops and difficult navigation. In Cambodia and Viet Nam, it should be
allowed but due care needs to be taken as many small vessels do not carry navigation lights. During the
wet season, monsoon rains can be very heavy, blurring all visibility. One of the most important tools to
assist is the radar, used to measure the bearing and distance of vessels to prevent collisions with other
vessels and to navigate and fix their position on the river by using fixed references such as islands and
buoys. In port or in Vessel Traffic Service (VTS), radar systems are used to monitor and regulate vessel
movements in busy waters. GPS apparatus will also provides barges with their exact location on the
river or waterway in combination with correct navigation charts which will also make navigation safer.
Monitoring locations and routes of vessels should be done in the future, especially for laden tankers.
If there is an oil spill, it should be known from where the spill originates. A useful tool used by the
ship and VTS is the Automatic Identification System (AIS), an automated tracking system for identifying
and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby vessels and VTS stations. The
information provided by AIS equipment (unique identification, position, course and speed) can be
displayed on a screen or on an electronic chart (ECDIS). In navigation, AIS is primarily used to avoid
13 In 1978, a number of European countries agreed in The Hague on a memorandum that agreed to audit whether the labour conditions
onboard vessels were according to the rules of the ILO. After the Amoco Cadiz sank that year, it was decided to also audit safety and
pollution. To this end, the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (Paris MoU) was agreed upon in 1982, establishing Port State Control
which now covers 26 European countries and Canada. In practice, this was a reaction to the failure of the flag states - especially flags of
convenience that have delegated their task to classification societies - to comply with their inspection duties. Port State Control (PSC) is the
inspection of foreign (maritime) ships in other national ports by PSC officers (inspectors) for the purpose of verifying that the competency of
the master and officers onboard, that the condition of a vessel and its equipment comply with the requirements of international conventions
(e.g. SOLAS, MARPOL, STCW, etc.) and that the vessel is manned and operated in compliance with applicable international law.