IMO Assists Cuba in Spill Preparedness

Cuba is the fourth Caribbean country to receive International Maritime Organization (IMO) assistance on spill preparedness in recent weeks, following similar events in Mexico, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago.

An IMO-funded workshop on ‘National Contingency Planning’ took place in Havana (13-15 November). The event was part of renewed efforts in the region to identify gaps in existing spill contingency plans.

Senior level response managers and contingency planners from across the country took part in the workshop. This included conducting a self-assessment of the existing Cuban response and preparedness programmes, including response operations, spill training and exercises, and risk-assessments.

The lessons learned from the self-assessments will be combined into a overall improvement plan with future follow-up from IMO to gauge progress and identify any additional assistance that may be required.

The workshop took place under REMPEITC-Caribe, the Regional Marine Pollution Emergency, Information and Training Centre for the Caribbean, which was set up under the UN Environment’s Regional Seas Programme for the Caribbean.