For safety of navigation in the Red Sea and Aden Gulf,Yemen installs sophisticated lighthouses [Archives:2004/783/Business & Economy]
The Yemeni Authority for Maritime Affairs has recently installed a high-tech lighthouse in the Greater Hunaish Island with a height of 200 meters above the Red Sea level. That is part of the efforts Yemen is exerting in cooperation with the regional organization for protection of marine environment in the region and in the south of the Gulf of Aden aimed at serving the safety of navigation.
While the Authority, in cooperation with the International Marine Organization, is during the upcoming period preparing to study the situation of lighthouses pertaining to serving navigation in the Yemeni regional waters, it has installed an automatic equipment for monitoring ships movements in the South Region of the Red Sea for the purpose of implementing goals of the international agreement for marine safety and the international agreement for preventing collision of ship, as Yemen is one of the member countries of the agreement.
According to executive chairman of the Authority Khalid Ibrahim al-Wazir, the new two-way navigation route was defined in the south of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with an area of 750 square meters in an area that has not been surveyed for more than 140 years. The aim of this measure is to secure safety of international navigation and avoid ship collision incidents as well as prevention of occurrence of damage to the marine environment.
Mr al-Wazir has said in a statement to the Yemeni news agency that what supports Yemen's efforts for protection of safety of international sea navigation is the Yemeni parliament's approval of criteria governing training and qualification of ship captains and engineers. For this purpose the Authority has dispatched a group of its cadres to the Alexandria Sea Academy to acquire skills for training seaports, coast guard and navigation companies' employees on implementation of terms of the international regulations for the safety of ships and issuing certificates proving application of the regulations by Yemeni ports. That has been done through the International Marine Organization.
The State Authority for Sea Affairs has appropriated a sum of YR 60 million in the budget of the year 2005 for financing a training program to be held abroad for the training of its cadres in specialized academies in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Syria, Singapore and the United Kingdom. The Authority dispatched trainees to Syria for training on operating modern electronic navigation equipment and the receiving of distress calls from ships and also on monitoring them.
By carrying out these training programs, the authority intends to activate its monitoring for the securing of international sea navigation safety and building new lighthouses wherever their installation is needed in the Yemeni regional waters.
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