INTRODUCTION
Marine environment is one of earth’s most precious and delicate resources and there is a growing awareness amongst nations of the world that drastic and sustainable measures need to be adopted and implemented to protect it from further deterioration. Nigeria is a maritime nation with a coastline of approximately 853km on its southern border and a population of over 120 million inhabitants, 20% of which inhabit the coastal zone. The importance of the marine environment to Nigeria is underscored by the fact that about 90% of its international trade i.e. imports and exports are dependent on marine transport. Nigeria has about 9 major ports which are for navigational and administrative purposes divided into 5 Navigational Districts namely: Port Harcourt, Warri, Lagos, Calabar and Onne navigational districts. Ship traffic into these ports excluding tankers is estimated at approximately 3,500 vessels per annum. Out of the total traffic, ports within the Lagos area account for 50%, Rivers ports 25% and Delta ports 15%. Overall cargo throughput (excluding crude) is estimated at 22.23 million tones. The total number of passengers that pass through the sea ports is estimated at 1500 per year. Nigeria being a major oil producing and exporting country records approximately 1,000 petroleum tanker vessels calling at her ports annually, with an average tanker size of about 95.000 GRT.
All the vessels calling at these ports carry enormous amount of waste including bilge,sludge, garbage, sewage, chemical waste (toxic and non-toxic) and in the absenceof Reception Facilities all the ship generated waste are discharged into the seawithin the vicinity of the ports. Recent events including the oil spill resulting fromcollision of The Agulhas and The Asian Star, the Marina Bay rice pollution and Tankfarm spillage at Tin Can Island of June 2002 together emphasize the problem ofpollution in the ports. One must not forget the constant damage and threat to the portenvironment posed by industries like the Flour Mills, rice, salt and sugar factorieslocated in the port area.
The focus of this research work is on application of Information systems in prevention of pollution in the Maritime industry.
Nigeria as we all know has no dry ports at the moment therefore our area of discourse would be limited to seaports and pollution of the marine environment within the vicinity of the Ports. We would adopt as a working definition the meaning given to the concept of marine pollution by the United Nations Convention on Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982 which provides as follows:
“Pollution of the marine environment means the introduction by man, directly or indirectly, of substances or energy into the marine environment, including estuaries which results or is likely to result in such deleterious effects such as harm to living resources and marine life, hazard to human health, hindrance to marine activities, including fishing and other legitimate uses of the sea, impairment of quality for use of the sea and reduction of amenities.”
The use of expert systems in the forecast, proper management, prevention and control of dangerous and hazardous situations such as pollution, disease out break and natural disasters can never be over emphasized.
It is against this backdrop that this research work is designed to study the application of expert systems such Information systems in the prevention of man made disasters like Pollution in the Maritime industry of Nigeria.
Pollution in a lay man’s understanding could be any event, occurrence or situation that makes the environment very un-conducive to both man and animal for living.
The aim of this research work is to understudy the use of information systems in prevention of pollution in the maritime sector of the Nigerian economy.
Prevention they say is always better than cure; it’s as a result of this that this study when completed shall in a great way provide managers and operators of the Nigerian Maritime industry with a better scope and strategy to combat and prevent maritime pollution using Information systems.
To Africa and the world it shall be a master piece for use whenever a research of a related subject matter is to be embarked upon.
The following research questions were formulated to reflect the objective of this study which is – application of information systems in the prevention of pollution in the Nigerian maritime industry.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this research work is designed to studypollution prevention in the Nigerian Maritime industry through application of information systems.
The study revealed various riverine areas of the country and the pollution problems facing them, though oil related pollution was identified to be the most hazardous and reflective pollution on the nation maritime sector even as it occurs seldom nowadays.
1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY
The research study encountered many challenges ranging from scarcity of research materials, to short research duration and slim financial budget.
INFORMATION SYSTEM: Information system is a collection of various components that accepts raw data (Input) transforms the collected data into usable and comprehensive information (Process) stores the processed information for future usage (Storage) and produces the initial raw data as comprehensive information that can be used in efficient decision making (Output).
MARITIME INFORMATION SYSTEMS: Maritime Information Systems are Hi-tech computerized systems used in network of maritime operations.
MIS: Maritime Information Systems
NOSDRA: National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency
Etc.