By: Staff Writer March 01, Colombo (LNW): Japan helps enhance Sri Lanka Coast Guard’s capacity to handle oil spill control, recovery under. Protecting “Safe and Open Seas “programme. 37 Sri Lanka Coast Guard (SLCG) members are now competent enough to handle oil spill control, and recovery, thanks to training and patrol craft and equipment received from Japan. This was the t third phase of the programme to establish an in-house advanced oil spill incident management training programme at Sri Lanka Coast Guard for disaster mitigation and marine environment protection.

It was mainly intended to inculcate an in-house advanced training capacity system for Disaster Mitigation and Marine Environment Protection of the SLCG under the concept of institutionalisation. The establishment of a sustainable human resource development system to address oil spill incident in SLCG is an important initiative for Sri Lanka and Indo-Pacific region. JICA will be continuously committed to protecting the safety of vessel navigation in the Indo-Pacific through the technical cooperation for SLCG in collaboration with JCG. A team of five Japanese experts of Japan Coast Guard (JCG) comprising two officials from their Mobile Cooperation Team who are specialized in capacity development, two officers from National Strike Team Station in Yokohama who are in charge of oil spill management in a coastal area in Japan, and one officer from Marine Environment Protection & Disaster prevention Division of JCG, conducted the oil spill response training. JCG and SLCG had the onshore training in Kirinda from 6th to 12th February, and offshore training in Dikovita from 14th to 21st. In the final part of the training, SLCG patrol vessel 501 and 502, which is provided through JICA Grant Assistance in 2018, were used to conduct a comprehensive drill simulating an oil spill incident, utilizing oil fences and other equipment. Total thirty-seven SLCG officers completed this program. Since the inception of this series of technical cooperation by JICA in 2014, more than 200 SLCG officers have joined the training program held by JCG and JICA. Phase I commenced in February 2015 and terminated in 2017. It was mainly focused on developing the Basic Coastal Oil Spill Response Skills of the SLCG. This initial training phase was conducted at the Advanced Training Centre-Mirissa by a team of highly qualified JCG oil spill response instructors. Phase II, which extended from 2019 to 2022, was dedicated to further developing co-competencies in response to the offshore oil spill response by the mobile platforms (ships). In particular, the SLCG has received two brand new Fast Patrol Vessels dedicated for oil spill response operations along with oil spill response equipment in the year 2018 under the project for maritime safety capability improvement.