National Plan for Water Transport Safety Supervision & Rescue System

The National Plan for Water Transport Safety Supervision and Rescue System, compiled by the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Communications (MOC) was approved by the State Council in April 2007. It serves as the first national medium to long-term plan for water transport safety supervision and rescue system since the founding of P. R. China in 1949 and forms an integral part of the National Management System for Public Emergencies. In accordance with objective of the plan, by 2020, the water transport safety supervision and rescue system featuring “full coverage, all-weather operation, quick response and effective rescue” will have been established basically along the coastal waters and the main inland waters of the arteries of Yangtze River, Pearl River and Heilong Jiang River . At the same time, the water transport safety situation will have been fundamentally improved with significant decrease of major water transport accidents. As Mr. Weng Mengyong, Vice Minister of Communications, put it vividly at the press conference: Once the plan in place, the water transport will become a more reliable mode of safe transport, and ocean exploitation and utilization activities will grow safer. Consequently it will be people's natural choice to travel by water and enjoy its comfort.

I The Current Situation

China 's Water Transport Safety Management Mechanism is composed of Water Transport Safety Supervision Mechanism and that of Search and Rescue Mechanism for Emergencies, whose duties are assumed by the central and local governments. Water transport safety supervision is taken care of by the maritime safety administration at different levels, and the maritime administration system directly under MOC assumes the responsibilities of the safety supervision over the waters covered by the central government's duties, preventing vessels from polluting the sea, inspection of vessels and maritime facilities, navigation guarantee management, administration and law enforcement. Search and Rescue Mechanism for Emergencies on Water is in charge of National Inter-Ministerial Maritime Search and Rescue Joint Meeting Mechanism, whose routine work is taken care of by China Maritime Search and Rescue Center (headquartered at MOC). Under MOC is the National Professional Rescue and Salvage Organization, which has Beihai Rescue Bureau, East China Sea Rescue Bureau and South China Sea Rescue Bureau, and 3 salvage bureaus in Yantai, Shanghai and Guangzhou . All the said bureaus are tasked to rescuing lives and properties of vessels in distress at sea, fire fighting at sea, cleaning of oil spillover at sea, special tasks for political and military emergencies and salvaging sunken vessels and properties.

With efforts made over the past years, China 's capabilities to guarantee water transport safety have improved and the safety situation has started to change for the better. Take the year 2006 for example, compared with the year of 2000, the number of accidents of vessels decreased by 30.5 percent, the death toll decreased by 34.7 percent. Between the year 2001 and 2006, the number of search and rescue activities nationwide reached 10,408, the number of people rescued 87,921 and vessels 8674. In a word, water transport safety supervision and rescue have contributed to the social and economic development.

In recent years, with the rapid development of water transport and the enhanced ocean development and utilization, the risks and threats of water transport have increased. China 's water transport safety situation is extremely complicated, whose major players are freight and passenger transport. Take the year 2006 for example, the total foreign trade volume of China was $1760.7 billion, accounting for 66 percent of the GDP, among which about 90 percent of the foreign trade was realized by maritime transport. In 2006, the number of vessels entering and exiting from the coastal ports was 10 million vessel times and the number of vessels handled daily in estuaries of the Yangtze River and Pearl River reached 3000 times respectively. Now there are one million vessels and fishing boats featuring various types and backward technological equipment engaged in water transport, whose age is obviously above the world average. There are also other problems, like the transport overload during the Spring Festival period, complicated navigation conditions and the inadequate quality of crew members in general. The number of people in water distress in 2006 was 2.4 times as that in 2000, the number of vessels 1.8 times as that of in 2000. In the coming 15 years, the trend of bigger vessels will develop further, so will the traffic volume and density. In particular, as the volume of imported crude oil and liquid chemical products increases sharply, there will grow the risk of calamity of mass injury and death as well as major pollution caused by oil spills. In this sense, China will be faced with the pressure of water transport safety for a long time.

II Necessity to compile the plan

With the severe situation of water transport safety, it has become imperative to compile the long-term plan for national water transport safety system for economic and social development. The reasons could be stated as follows:

---To speed up water transport safety supervision and rescue system, improve its supervision and rescue capabilities in an all-round way and guarantee people's lives, properties and ecological environment on water are the specific embodiment of implementing the scientific development concept of people-orientation and sustainable development strategy, and the objective requirement to satisfy people's increasing demand for safety and build the welfare society in an all-round way.

--It's one of the government's functions to guarantee public security, strengthen safety management and handle public emergencies. To enhance water transport safety supervision and rescue system will improve China 's capacity to manage water transport safety and deal with water emergencies, and promote social stability and harmony.

--As the permanent member of UN Security Council and Category A council member of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), China has acceded to or accepted 45 international treaties and protocols concerning water transport safety. Our water transport safety management agency conducts supervision over foreign vessels entering China 's waters and ports, maintains our national interests and assumes the international responsibility to rescue foreigners in distress. In this sense, to strengthen the building of the system, it will improve our capabilities to implement international treaties and raise China 's status in the world arena.

--As a big shipping and ocean country, water transport has played a vital role in promoting social and economic development, and the ocean economy has become more and more important in the national economy. It is the objective demand of water transport development and ocean development and utilization to have built a suitable water transport safety supervision and rescue system and make water transport a reliable, safe and trustworthy mode of transport.

--Water transport accidents usually take the form of emergencies, far from the seashore and can easily cause mass death and injury, environmental damage as well as negative influence both at home and abroad with difficulty in timely rescue and aid. Therefore, it is hard to adopt the conventional measures and ways to tackle the emergencies. In this sense, it is necessary to build a well-equipped modern supervision and rescue system to deal with water transport emergencies and reduce risks and damage of accidents caused on water.

III Major content of the plan

 • Background and process of the compilation of the plan

It took 3 years to compile the plan with several steps. We envisaged the requirements to carry out the system, absorbed the advanced experience of foreign countries as well as Hong Kong SAR in the field of water transport safety and rescue system, and conducted studies in telecommunications supervision and command system building programs, distribution of power forces and layout of bases of planes and vessels, cleaning of pollution and equipment of emergency management and salvage, its building and maintenance. Meetings with officials from government agencies in some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities were conducted to solicit their comments in this regard. Experts on macro-economy, industrial layout, urban planning, comprehensive transport, transport economy and telecommunications were invited for in-depth discussions. Advice and suggestions from emergency management, defense, public security, finance, agriculture, customs, ocean and meteorological agencies as well as shipping companies were taken into consideration. As a result, the plan was completed on the basis of wrapping up the summary of water transport accidents and the law of relevant risks as well as scientific concepts and practice from foreign countries.

The plan was approved by the State Council in April 2007, It's promulgation and implementation will speed up the modernization of China's water transport safety supervision and rescue system and shall have far-reaching influence upon water transport, ocean exploitation and utilization activities, safety of people's lives and property as well as a balanced social and economic development.

• The Program of the plan and its Effect

The plan is a comprehensive one covering the arrangement, system and construction.

According to the layout of potential risky waters and density of accidents, the plan has taken into account the planning of supervision and rescue network along the coastal waters and the artery of Yangtze River , which has 3 levels, namely, the comprehensive supervision and rescue bases, bases and stations. There are 4 comprehensive bases along the coast and specially designed airports for supervision and rescue, 8 comprehensive bases along Yangtze River . There are 18 bases along the coastal waters with high potential risks like Dalian with facilities for planes to take off and land; 12 bases along the artery of Yangtze River and other inland waters. There are 4 frontier standing-by points at Nanhuangcheng Island of Bohai Bay, Luhua Mountain at the estuary of Yangtze River, Guishan Island at the estuary of Pearl River and Yongxing Island in South China Sea, which are far from the land. 21 supervision and rescue stations are distributed along the coastal waters and other waters with high risks; 83 stations along Yangtze River and 143 distributed among other inland waters.

As a systematic planning, the plan has designed the equipment standards and planning for supervision and rescue facilities according to the spatial distribution. Specifically speaking, it refers to the three systems, namely, telecommunication supervision and command system, power forces like planes and vessels for supervision and rescue, and equipments for cleansing oil spillover, managing emergencies and salvage.

As a plan for construction, it will take two phases for the construction, i.e. the short-term and long-term respectively. The short-term refers to the key projects in the 11th five-year-plan while the long-term means the key projects planned within 2020.

As a national arrangement planning, the plan is targeted to serve national water transport safety, development and interests of ocean economy and reflects the will of the government to render public service, maintain public security and manage effectively public emergencies. To this end, the plan is entirely funded by the central government.

• Effect of the Plan Implementation

With the implementation of the plan, the modern water transport safety supervision and rescue system featuring full coverage, all-weather operation and quick response will have been established with the coastal waters and the arteries of Yangtze River as key areas by 2020. Its four features are as follows:

First, full coverage means that water transport supervision and rescue forces will effectively cover country's territorial waters and its search and rescue responsibility areas, and multi-coverage will be realized in some key water areas.

Second, all-weather operation refers to real-time prevention and supervision over risks. The rescue forces can operate around the clock under the condition of 9 degree sea situation (12-scale wind force and 14-meter-high waves), and effective supervision and rescue is guaranteed under 6 degree sea situation (9-scale wind force and 6-meter-high waves).

Third, quick response implies that the rescue forces should arrive at the emergency place 100 sea miles from the shore in 90 minutes, and in 45 minutes for major inland navigation channels.

Fourth, effective rescue refers to the target that the success rate to rescue human lives should surpass 93 percent; the capability to clean oil spills in major waters should reach 1000 tons each time; the tonnage of overall salvage for sunken vessels should be 80,000 and underwater rescue and salvage should reach as far as -300 meters.

• Recent Plan to Implement the plan

In the 11th five-year-plan period, the resources will be concentrated on some weak areas and basically complete the layout and equipment deployment of 6 major waters, namely, Bohai Bay , the estuary and artery of Yangtze River, the Taiwan Straits , the estuary of Pearl River and Qiongzhou Straits . By 2010, the general framework of water transport safety supervision and rescue will have taken shape in general, and the supervision and rescue in key water areas will have been strengthened significantly.