Derelicts in the harbour

ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum made a revelation in Parliament that will no doubt attract a lot of interest. He said the estimated cost to remove all the derelict ships in Suva Harbour, Lautoka Harbour and Levuka, was about $59 million.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum revealed this in the Parliament on Monday.

The cost, he said, was enormous.

“A lot of these ships have local owners and they, sort of, sunk it and disappeared, so these companies do not even exist. That is the state of affairs,” he revealed.

There were 17 derelict vessels and 32 wrecks in the Suva Harbour, and the Lautoka and Levuka Port area. It is encouraging that the issue is been raised again. Back in 2018, the revelation that “funding constraints” were hindering the removal of derelict vessels in Suva Harbour did raise some concern at the time.

That year, Fiji Ports Corporation Ltd CEO Vajira Piyasena said there were nine vessels submerged within the harbour.

Their removal, he said, was subject to availability of funds though. Pacific Towing Ltd, a Papua New Guinea-based company, as well as Perrott Salvage Pty Ltd Australia, he said, had been identified to carry out assessment work which included the removal of the MV Southern Phoenix.

Acquiring funds was the biggest challenge though, he said.

In 2017, he said FPCL paid more than $220,000 to remove two vessels — MV Sea Love and MV Tovuto. It costed $85,000 to winch the partially submerged Sea Love to dry ground. The Tovuto was towed and scuttled 1.4 miles south-west of the main Suva passage. Derelicts that litter the harbour should be removed. It makes sense then that we should put in place stringent measures that will protect our harbour well into the future. Otherwise, we may just as well send out a memo suggesting we have a harbour for derelict vessels.

Surely there are issues that will be raised by people concerned about the rising number of vessels finding their way to Suva, given the location of our harbour, availability of appropriate facilities for repair and maintenance work for vessels, resupply of rations, and proximity to fishing grounds in the region.

However, we wonder whether this is significant enough to overshadow issues such as environmental pollution.

It seems the beauty of the Suva Harbour has been overtaken by derelict vessels.

Let’s face it. They pose a threat to local vessels using the harbour and are a major environmental issue. They are ugly and are eyesores in the harbour.

And while we are at it, derelict vessels reflect badly on us when we talk about protecting our environment and our waterfront.

So, in saying that, we must put our foot down and owners of such vessels must get the message that we value our marine resources and harbour. They must remove these rusty, ugly, old iron waste that were once vessels.

We must protect our environment, and if it means putting in place very tough laws and requirements to use our harbour in the future, then so be it.