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De Standaard Online -
Dutch and Belgian dredgers have the appropriate technology to fight against the oil spill.
According to them, the "top hat" that has been placed can only "capture" 3/4 of the oil, which means that thousands of oil barrels are still leaking every day.
Thus, numerous dams of sand and stone should be built all along the coast of the US southern states, in order to protect places such as the mouth of the Mississipi or the natural reserves of Florida.
However, the Americans would need 9 months to build these dams, while the Belgian dredging companies Jan de Nul and DEME says it could do so in 4 months, maybe 3 if the American companies cooperate.
"The Americans use outdated technologies. That's a consequence of the Jones Act, which says that transportation by ship between US havens has to be done on US ships, built in the USA and whose crew is American. Thus, a dredger costs twice as much in the USA than here, since we build ours in Asia. They're so expensive that they're not replaced easily, and so they're much older than ours.
The lastest technologies are thus used only in two Dutch and two Belgian dredging companies. Just one week ago, the Dutch "Flinstone", has been inaugurated in Singapore. It is a fallpipe vessel that can place stones and sand with a great precision at great depths. They say that within a month they could be operational and soak up the oil spill.
Dutch and Belgian dredgers have the appropriate technology to fight against the oil spill.
According to them, the "top hat" that has been placed can only "capture" 3/4 of the oil, which means that thousands of oil barrels are still leaking every day.
Thus, numerous dams of sand and stone should be built all along the coast of the US southern states, in order to protect places such as the mouth of the Mississipi or the natural reserves of Florida.
However, the Americans would need 9 months to build these dams, while the Belgian dredging companies Jan de Nul and DEME says it could do so in 4 months, maybe 3 if the American companies cooperate.
"The Americans use outdated technologies. That's a consequence of the Jones Act, which says that transportation by ship between US havens has to be done on US ships, built in the USA and whose crew is American. Thus, a dredger costs twice as much in the USA than here, since we build ours in Asia. They're so expensive that they're not replaced easily, and so they're much older than ours.
The lastest technologies are thus used only in two Dutch and two Belgian dredging companies. Just one week ago, the Dutch "Flinstone", has been inaugurated in Singapore. It is a fallpipe vessel that can place stones and sand with a great precision at great depths. They say that within a month they could be operational and soak up the oil spill.
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