The Malacca Straits

On August 19, in the Malacca Straits, a Taiwanese oil tanker bearing 58,000 tons of naphtha oil from Britain to Singapore was struck by a British cargo ship carrying charcoal. The tanker caught fire and spilled oil into the vital waterway.

Though the ship is currently reported to be in stable condition, the collision, which occured in fair weather, hilights the dangers to world trade posed by the narrow strait.

Nearly 100,000 thousand large ships pass between Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore each year, bearing 20 percent of the world's oil. Fully 80 percent of Japan's crude passes this way. In addition, the number of ships carrying Chinese trade has burgeoned in recent years, increasing the danger of a major maritime disaster year by year.

The effects of such an accident would likely range from the devastation of the marine environment, which would have a major impact on local economies, to a temporary halt in traffic on the world's busiest waterway.

A Foundation-funded buoy-tender vessel on a training run

For this reason, The Nippon Foundation has for over 40 years supported safety initiatives along the straits. Foundation initiatives have included the comprehensive underwater survey that has resulted in today's shipping lanes, the building of 38 buoys and lighthouses along the straits, the provision of ships to maintain them and, most recently, major support for a Aids to Navigation Fund.

This fund is to be used to help the three littoral nations of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore maintain the vital system of buoys and navigational aids that are meant to prevent such disasters as that witnessed on Wednesday.

It is a novel concept in that, while The Nippon Foundation is providing a third of its cost for the first five years, it is expected that the actual users of the straits, and not just the littoral nations, will voluntarily take a leading role in maintaining the fund. This is a first in the maritime world. But it is a very logical first, since the maritime industry itself benefits most directly from the waterway, while at the same time exposing it to the greatest degree of danger.

Further information about this fund, as well as other foundation initiatives in the Malacca Straits, can be found via the links below.