JAPAN COAST GUARD AND JAPAN INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGENCY VISITED TO EVALUATE SLCG ADVANCED OIL SPILL RESPONSE CAPABILITIES

A visiting delegation of the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) visited SLCG Rear Headquarters at Wellawatte on 13^th February 2022. The Japanese delegation is comprised of Mr. koji Tsuchiya (Senior Advisor JICA) as head of the delegation including Mr. Daiki Maeno (JCG), Mr. Hiryuki Fukushima (JICA), Mr. Ichiharu Tanaka (JCG), Mr. Yoshimi Karasawa (JCG) and Mr. Simada Kazuki (JICA Sri Lanka Office). The purpose of the visit is to conduct an initial planning meeting on subsequent evaluation, visits and oil spill exercises from 14^th to 25^th February 2022 as per the agreement for ‘Phase III’ project of providing advisory service for improving oil spill response capabilities for SLCG. Fruitful discussions were held with the visiting delegation and Captain Chandana Priyantha, Director Training-SLCG and other senior officers of the SLCG and scheduled to undertake various activities to evaluate the oil spill response capability of SLCG.

Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has conducted the advisory service for improving oil spill response capabilities for SLCG through the ‘phase I’ project from 2015- 2017 (Basic coastal oil spill response training up to tier 1) and the ‘phase II’ project from 2019 – 2021 (Oil spill response skills at sea by boat) during previous engagements with Sri Lanka Coast Guard.