Maritime Labor Convention (MLC) was adopted by the 94th maritime assembly at the international labor conference held on 22nd February 2006. The aim of MLC is to uphold the rights of seafarers on board and ensure that the work environment is maintained in good condition. In addition, MLC stipulates that ship owners engage in standardizing the work environment for seafarers for the purpose of improving work performance.
According to MLC, each country is required to set out labor laws that meet the criteria laid out by the International Labor Organization (ILO). Article 3.2 of MLC specifies that the quality of food and drinking water shall comply with the minimum standards to promote the health of seafarers. With this regard, this study aims to analyze and compare the regulations on drinking water of various countries such as Korea, Germany and Liberia and to propose the methods and procedure for supplying Korean seafarers with good quality portable water.
The results of this study are summarized as follows;
Firstly, drinking water on board ship is defined as portable water supplied and stored in portable water tanks through water transportation equipment after undergoing treatment on land.
Secondly, it was shown that the method, the frequency and the place of inspection varies depending on each country' s regulations on portable water. For instance, according to Norwegian regulations on drinking water (4th December 2001), the drinking water (which includes sea water and freshwater), whether its being supplied on land or on board ships, should be supplied by registered water suppliers in tankers, bottles or other packaging method. In the case of Germany, drinking water regulations (DIN 2001) stipulate that operators should test the quality of the drinking water and be provided with portable hand-carry equipment for ease of monitoring. For Liberia the regulations specify that the water tank shall be cleaned up and sanitized every once a year or more frequently in case the portable water test indicates pollution.
Thirdly, on carrying out research on the portable water regulations on board ships, it was found that the MLC only follows the standards prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) without giving any specific regulations for each country. For example, according to the Korean Seamen Act enforcement regulations, the captain on board is in charge of portable water management and inspection once in a month based on a broad concept. In contrast, In Germany, Norway and Liberia, the portable water management control on board is performed through the specific examination of water based on a standardized manual.
Therefore, it is clear that a legal revision of Article 1 of the Korean Seamen Act enforcement regulations is required to include tests on free and total chlorine, pH, total bacteria count, turbidity, color, E. coli and coliforms, intestinal enterococci and legionella bacteria.
Lastly, for efficient portable water control, the ship owner must ensure that seafarers are well trained on portable water management and equipment usage.
Thus, this study proposes the improvement plan on drinking water management on board as follows:
First of all, for the methods and procedures of drinking water management set out by flag states to be unified, the criteria on the check list should be based on the portable water standards imposed by WHO. The inspection procedure should be based on the method, frequency and place of inspection.
Secondly, this study suggests terminological operational monitoring and verification monitoring which focuses on verifying and analyzing the microbial fecal indicators by selecting organisms on Escherichia Coli or enteric bacteria. Thus, a sample of fresh water in the storage is taken to test for such bacterial germ.
Finally, utilization of the portable water test kit shall be of utmost help in testing for not only the water itself but also for colon bacillus which could affect the crew adversely. In addition, it will assist users in optimizing the procedures of drinking water management so as to notify the seafarers well in advance and will lead to cost saving.