Kitack Lim, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), urged the international community to provide more financial support for the UN-coordinated operational plan to address the risk of a major oil spill Floating Storage and Offloading tanker, SAFER, moored off the Yemeni coast, following the fundraising conference in The Hague in which donors pledged additional funding worth $33 million. Lim said in a press statement today that "in face of an impending environmental catastrophe, we must do everything we can to prevent it". He pointed out that the organization supports contingency planning efforts in the region in anticipation of a possible spill from the oil tank to limit the effects if it occurs, as the oil spill would represent a humanitarian and environmental disaster with enormous economic impacts on the shipping and navigation sector throughout the region. He added that the plan to mitigate risks by transferring oil to a safe temporary vessel needs financial resources, stressing that the installation of an alternative long-term facility is also critical to the success of the plan.
