Removing derelict ships

THE estimate cost to remove all the derelict ships in Suva Harbour, Lautoka Harbour and Levuka is about $59 million.

Attorney-General and Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum revealed this in the Parliament on Monday.

“The cost is quite enormous,” he said. “A lot of these ships have actually local owners and they, sort of, sunk it and disappeared, so these companies do not even exist.

“That is the State of affairs.” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said there were 17 derelict vessels and 32 wrecks in Suva Harbour, Lautoka and Levuka port areas.

“We are happy to report that none of the derelict ships at the moment caused any damage visibly.

“The Department of Environment has not alerted us to any environmental degradation from these derelict ships.

“They are, of course, a nuisance in the sense that it can get in the way in terms of the various movement of vessels in the harbour.”

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said a number of shipping companies had been given notices to remove derelict ships.

“I have got a whole list of them as to which ones need to be removed.

“The one, of course, that was quite well known was the ship that was here with the containers floating and the insurance company moved in and removed it.

“It is obviously not an easy task to do so, it does require lots of logistics and planning and the Department of Environment also needs to be involved in it.

“Essentially, in a nutshell, that is the game plan in respect of removing it.

“Sometimes, it can cost anywhere from $50,000 to millions of dollars just to remove one particular derelict ship,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.