Material against oil pollution at sea on Bonaire

Recently the Ministry of Waterways and Public Works (Rijkswaterstaat) has stationed two so-called current busters in the harbor of Kralendijk Bonaire. The current buster can be used to collect oil during oil spill at sea. The spilled oil can then be pumped up and drained. The delivery of the material is part of a bigger project to help Bonaire to be well prepared for maritime incidents.

Training
The current busters will be used by the harbor master, Marine Park rangers and volunteers. On Thursday and Friday, August 28th and 29th Rijskwaterstaat organized a training with the new oil control material. In the morning theory classes were started; in the afternoon the current busters were actually rolled out and placed in the water for the first time. On the Friday training was held the entire day with the distribution from the shore and the sailing with the current buster. Bopec and BPPS have each made a work ship available for the exercise. The new pilot boat of the Public Entity was used to allow participants a close up view of how the system works.

Well prepared
Since Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba became public entities; Rijkswaterstaat is responsible for the organization and coordination of combating maritime incidents at sea. Previously Bonaire already received a container with material to clean up the coast during oil spill. Besides the container and the current busters there are still plans to provide large and small off-shore oil screens. Saba and St. Eustatius have also received oil control material. With this the islands in the Caribbean Netherlands are able to intervene quickly in case of oil spill at sea.

Source: press release RCN, August 30, 2013