SOHAR Port and Freezone signed an agreement with Oman Maritime Waste Treatment on December 23. The signing took place at the SOHAR Port and Freezone Head Office, and reinforces their commitment of incorporating environmentally friendly solutions and initiatives and promoting sustainable development in and around the Port and Freezone.

The agreement was signed between H.E. Dr Mohammed Nasser Ali Al Zaabi, Chairman of the Board at SOHAR Port and Freezone and Pankaj Khimji, Director of Khimji Ramdas LLC. The partnership will see the creation of a full-fledged MARPOL-compliant facility for vessel waste disposal. The facility will also host multi-stage processing to comply with the most stringent standards of waste disposal, both at the anchorage area and within the port through a purpose-built vessel.

Highlighting the importance of the new facility, Mark Geilenkirchen, CEO of SOHAR Port and Freezone noted, “SOHAR Port and Freezone strives to do its best in spreading awareness about the adverse effects of water pollution, alongside promoting solutions that could minimise the same. Given that MARPOL is an extremely significant international marine environmental convention, the upcoming project will further support our efforts of providing better facilities to our tenants and a safe environment to communities in and around SOHAR.”

Oman Maritime Waste Treatment is a joint venture between Khimji Ramdas LLC of Oman, Ramky Enviro Engineers Limited of India and Nature Group of The Netherlands, whose main objective is the collection and disposal of waste from ships in adherence to the ‘International Protocol of MARPOL’.

 Pankaj Khimji commented, “We are extremely glad to partner with SOHAR Port and Freezone in this initiative, especially one that is aimed at building and ensuring environment-friendly maritime operations in the Sultanate. It is a bold new step, continuing to pave a way to keep our oceans free of contamination and also allowing us to play our part in enhancing the quality of marine life in the region.”

“With the completion of the project, Oman will proudly present itself as one of the most advanced waste collection, disposal and treatment centres in maritime services in the world. This will subsequently drive our efforts in becoming one of the more prominent port and free zone complexes across the region,” Mark added.