On the way toward a cleaner Mediterranean
has become effective.
The Protocol for the Protection of the Mediterranean Sea
against Pollution from Land-based Sources and Activities,
amended in 1996 and ratified by Italy in 1999, has finally become
effective in May 11th 2008, after many years of negotiations and
after Syria and Croatia ratified the protocol.
The Protocol accelerates the development of brief and middle term
regional plans and action programs with compulsory measures and
specific schedules.
Great satisfaction is expressed by the coordinator of the UNEP/MAP,
Paul Mifsud, who considers the Protocol as one of the greatest
conquests of MAP and its legislative frame, since it commits the
contracting parts of the Barcelona Convention to undertake a
concrete process of pollution reduction in the Mediterranean
sea.
Since 1996, the MED POL program, which is the UNEP/MAP sector
responsible for the assistance to countries in the application of
the Protocol, has already outlined the basis for the
above-mentioned action plans through the adoption of the Strategic
Action Program (SAP) aimed to cope with pollution from sources of
terrestrial origin.
According to Francesco Saverio Civili, MED POL coordinator, in the
last two years this program has proposed a new strategy that should
include the definition and ordering of the polluting substances;
the identification of a diversified approach for their reduction;
the formulation of specific action plans according to different
priorities. Next step in this process is the presentation of a
legally binding document that will be introduced in occasion of the
next Conference of the Parties of the Barcelona Convention,
scheduled for 2009, in order to fix goals and precise deadlines for
every substance defined as priority.
This last conquest gives a new impulse to the process started by
UNEP/MAP and by MED POL, sustained by the European Bank of
Investments and by the World Bank, also through other initiatives
like Horizon 2020 and the new strategic Partnership of the Global
Environment Fund (GEF).
Why is the Protocol application important?
Recent studies have shown that 80% of the pollution sources in the
Mediterranean Sea are of terrestrial origin and the main
responsible are industry, urban centers and agriculture.
As underlined by UNEP/MAP, the Mediterranean basin is in an
advanced state of deterioration. In fact every year toxic
substances produced by about 200 petrochemical industries,
energetic installations and chlorine production plants are
transported by over 80 waterways and dumped in the sea.
One of the most serious problems of the Mediterranean region is the
inadequate treatment of the urban waste waters: till now in fact
only 55% of the coastal cities are equipped with water treatment
plants. This means that every year in the Mediterranean sea are
poured more than 3 billions cubic meters of not treated
waters.
Those waste waters, added to nourishing substances coming from not
sustainable agricultural practices, as the unrestrained use of
fertilizers, cause serious phenomena of eutrophyzation and
consequent diminution of the oxygen, thus provoking a loss of the
rich biodiversity of the Mediterranean region.
The pollution of the Mediterranean sea is also caused by the
industrial waste waters, containing mainly phenol, mercury, lead,
chrome and zinc, amounting to around 66 million cubic meters for
year.
Those data don’t take in consideration the constant risk
caused by leaks of hydrocarbons due to accidents in the
Mediterranean sea, a basin with the highest intensity of
oil-tankers traffic in the world, where small oil quantities are
regularly unloaded. Moreover, a survey regarding only 6 countries
of the region has shown that 13 refineries have poured every year
in the sea 12,5 tons for every million tons.