Liberia Improves Oil Spill Preparedness

Increased commercial and oil activity in Liberia's territorial waters has seen the number of tankers and other ships supporting the oil activities, rise significantly.

These activities are critical to the Liberian economy but pose a risk in the event of an oil spill, said a press release from International Maritime Organization (IMO).

To address this issue, the Global Initiative for West, Central and Southern Africa (GI WACAF) has organized a workshop in Monrovia, Liberia (29 April – 2 May) which provided participants with incident management process information as well as an opportunity to test the newly learned material through an exercise.

The workshop also provided Liberia with the opportunity to update its Incident Management System and strengthened its national oil spill preparedness and response system.

Liberia is seeing a growing number of fishing communities along its coast and has a responsibility to protect the livelihood of these communities by having a robust oil spill preparedness and response plan in place.

The workshop was hosted by the Liberia Maritime Authority (LiMA).