Please Sign Petition – Ask Friends to Help Save our Ocean (Cannot touch munitions without Chemical Protection, but it OK for the Fish, Hmm…)

Cooperative meeting with Royal Dutch Shell, 23 March 2016, The Hague

Royal Dutch Shell – is a multinational Oil and Gas Company. It is the seventh (7^th) largest company in the world. It has operations in over 90 countries, produces around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, and has 44,000 service stations worldwide.

On 23 March 2016, the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) has met with the representative of the Environmental Department of Royal Dutch Shell in its Global Headquarters in The Hague.

During the informal lunch many possibilities of mutual cooperation were discussed, as the importance of the underwater munitions, and their potential impact on the industry is imminent.

The founder of the IDUM, Mr. Terrance Long, has emphasized, “Munitions can be found in major quantities in every ocean in the world. They can be found from a reservoir in Jakarta, Indonesia to the pristine lakes of the Swiss Alps at the foot of the Edger to the Great Lakes of North America. In addition to those dumped at sea, a vast number of munitions have been abandoned in rivers, lakes, reservoirs, and inland waterways. Former inland sites remain largely unrecognized, and are today found near many populated areas. In some cases, they share the same waters used by communities for human consumption and irrigation purposes.”

During the meeting was discussed: the importance of underwater munitions for private industries and companies. Private companies, among others, should be one of the most important supporters of the cleanup of the underwater munitions, as the connection can produce a lot of benefits. Besides leaving better seas and oceans for the next generations, and improving the state of the marine environment, it means more jobs, more opportunities, more economic and financial benefits, more efficient work of the industries, and many other great opportunities that come with the clean environment.

IDUM always takes actions, and having organized already five (5) International Dialogues, proposed a possibility of organizing the next dialogue in The Hague, in cooperation with Royal Dutch Shell. The development work on cooperative projects is to be continued.

Collaborative Meeting with UNESCO Institute for Water Education, 23 March 2016, Delft

UNESCO Institute for Water Education – is the prestigious and largest international postgraduate water education facility in the world. Since 1957 the Institute has provided postgraduate education to more than 14,500 water professionals from over 160 countries. UNESCO-IHE is instrumental in the strengthening of efforts by other universities and research centers in increasing knowledge and skills of professionals working in the water sector. UNESCO-IHE carries out three types of activities that complement and reinforces each other in the broad field of water engineering, water management, environment, sanitation, and governance. Its core activities are education, research, and capacity building.

On 23 March 2016, the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) has met with the representatives of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education in their global headquarters located in Delft, The Netherlands. The IDUM has been introduced to the Institute, its infrastructure, and has briefly met few of its students.

In great discussion with the representative of the Liaison Office of the UNESCO Institute, IDUM agreed upon mutual cooperation in development of a scientific course for focused professionals. In a Tailor-Made type of Training program that designed for clients whose staff require training on specific topics, or seek to develop a common knowledge base to address challenges ahead such as underwater munitions.

In the upcoming projects of the UNESCO Institute for Water Education, and the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions (IDUM) are planning to create many training and educational courses that are organized for groups of various sizes, and as large as industry sectors and regions. The IDUM will be responsible to design a program to upgrade knowledge and skills, introduce new technologies, and strengthen sector performance for people interested in the underwater munitions and their impact.

For IDUM, it is not the first educational project, as for many years the organization has already conducted similar training courses during the Summer School in Halifax, where the project ‘Towards the Monitoring of Dumped Munitions Threat’ (MODUM) together with many international partners, organizations, and agencies is highly thought after for its sharing and knowledge transfer on underwater munitions.

In a similar manner of the Science for Peace and Security Program Summer School, the courses will include an overview on global dumping of underwater weapons in national and international waters from 1920s’ to 1970’, as well as the introduction of possible solutions to the issues related to underwater munitions.

The work on the upcoming projects of the International Dialogue on Underwater Munitions and the UNESCO Institute for Water Education will begin in 2016-2017.