ASEZA refers ship waste dumping case to prosecutor general

AMMAN — The Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) on Sunday transferred the case of a vessel that emptied its wastewater into the Red Sea to the prosecutor general’s office after receiving a report of yellow-coloured substances in seawater.

In a statement, cited by Al Mamlaka TV, the authority said that its operations and control room was informed of yellow-coloured substances in seawater, which were released from a vessel docked at the Aqaba container terminal. 

The personnel of the authority's Environment Directorate were immediately moved to deal with the issue.

A joint effort by ASEZA's Maritime Authority and the Maritime Force concluded that the vessel, immediately after its departure from the container terminal, released wastewater from its reservoir.

ASEZA said that this was proven by images and videos from surveillance cameras, verification of the surveillance screen readings of any technical action on the vessel and differences between the tank's capacity and the remaining quantity and comparison with the amount at sea.

For his part, the captain of the vessel, at the beginning of the investigation, denied that the substance was the vessel’s waste, contrary to what had been established by the joint technical investigation team.

Confronted with evidence, the captain admitted that there had been an error by the chief engineer who opened the valve on the tank pump, leading to the discharge of wastewater towards the sea.

The case was referred to the competent prosecutor and, if the vessel leaves the port as a matter of urgency, it will be allowed to leave after depositing a financial guarantee determined by ASEZA to cover all financial claims arising from the incident as compensation for the resulting environmental damage.