BY JOHN HOUANIHAU
Stakeholders participating in the weeklong Oil Spill Response Training Workshop engaged in an oil spill response exercise yesterday at Aola Police maritime base in Honiara.
The oil spill response training workshop was made possible under the Ocean Country Partnership programme through Ambipar Response and SPREP.
The exercise aims to enhance the participating stakeholders’ response to oil spills with the resources available.
The workshop, set to end today, includes participants from the Solomon Islands Maritime Authority, South Pacific Oil, National Fisheries Development, Ministry of Health & Medical Services, RSIPF Maritime, and other organisations dealing with emergency responses.
“Part of the activity is to look at what equipment was available and how if there was a spill associated with, say the patrol vessel, how you might use that equipment like the boom to be able to ensure that the oil stays where it is and can be cleaned up,’’ said Paul Irving.
He said that the exercise is useful for people to understand that it’s not straightforward.
“It’s quite difficult to put the boom out; it takes some time, you need to figure out how it’s going to work properly, and you need to be aware of the other things going on,’’ he said.
He said that people who are involved in oil spill response need to learn through practice to experience them.
“After that, we went to South Pacific Oil, and South Pacific Oil very generously put their equipment out for us to see,’’ he said.
At the SPO at the Point Crus Jetty, participants were introduced to different types of booms and other equipment that can be used for oil spill response.
“There were three types of booms. There was a land sea boom, a harbour boom, a zoom boom, and brush skimmer and other equipment. So yeah, very interesting to be able to see the equipment that South Pacific Oil has available,’’ said Irving.
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