COME WITH US TO VISIT...VALENCIA PORT!

A visit to Valencia port!

Port of Singapore (One of the biggest ports of the world)

When you think of the biggest ports in the world, the most typical ones surely come to mind: the port of Shanghai, Singapore, that of Shenzhen... We generally have the general concept that all the biggest ports in the world are in the great asian giant and yes, you only have to look at Lloydlist to see that 7 of the 10 trafficked ports in the world are Chinese. However, to speak of large ports we do not have to go very far as the not inconsiderable 28th place on the Lloyds list is occupied by none other than Valencia Port. Not only that, in spite of the slowdown of Covid 19, Valenciaport (which includes the ports of Valencia, Gandia and Sagunto) closed 2019 with an increase of 5% in goods traffic compared to last year (up to 5.4 million TEUs, three times the average of the Spanish ports) claiming to be the driving force of the actual spanish port system, as underlined by the entity in a press release, which can undoubtedly guarantee it a place higher up the list already mentioned.

But how did the port achieve this huge growth? This is due, over other minimal things, to the privileged position in which it is found the entity; in the Valencian Community, more exports than imports are made due to the fact that the community has a powerful local agricultural industry in the surrounding areas, where the production of wine, oil and some other industries such as marble, ceramics or the automobile industry are boosted. Furthermore, a large part of the goods arriving in Spain land in the port of Valencia as it is especially easy for Asian countries to cut across the Mediterranean Sea and reach the Valencian port to export goods to the peninsula or nearby European countries. 

Port of Valencia from the heights.

ENLARGEMENT

The port of Valencia has been expanding atrociously for decades (precisely, since the early 90’s) due to the great growth it has had over the years and recently both the city council of Valencia and the port entity have considered the construction of a new terminal in the northern part of the Valencian port. Unfortunately, this means a great deal of damage to the Valencian countryside, although there is also the pressure of the need to expand the port's productive capacity, added to a large amount of foreign investment which in 2020 exceeded 1,100 million euros, plus the fact that the agricultural activity carried out in this area and its surroundings makes up a large part of the Valencian agricultural industry; the main economic activity of the Community and which represents a large percentage of exports abroad. For this reason, the Community's municipality is smoothing out its expansion, in other words: it will continue to expand the port so that it can manage itself without any problem while negotiating with the farmers what land would be available for occupation in the expansion to reduce the damage caused by the extension of the port and the addition of new facilities to make it easier to manage the tasks that are carried out in the port.

Farming Lands in Valencia

It is however an issue that still generates a lot of discussion between the two parties (port and orchard). Luckily, the Valencia Port entity is aware of the importance of the Valencian vegetable plot and is flexible and collaborative in the face of new agreements that arise with the city council and the local farmers that woks on the farming lands

FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS 

Port authorities

For Valenciaport, the detection and seizure of narcotic substances is a very serious task which gets more complicated every year. Little by little the port has become the epicentre of the fight against drugs in our country, Spain. Even so, and in spite of the many attempts to introduce drugs into the port of Valencia, the authorities manage to detect a large part of the drugs and arrest hundreds of people involved in drug trafficking and the smuggling of illegal products thanks to the rapid and effective action of the state forces and the port authorities. In fact, on 25 June this year, the police confiscated up to almost half a tonne of cocaine in the port and during the state of alert more than 3,800 kilos of cocaine have been seized in an operation in which eleven people have also been arrested for their alleged involvement in this seizure, once again demonstrating how effective the agents working in the entity are.

Also, on June 20, some drug traffickers tried to use a fire-fighting helicopter with 200 kilos of cocaine hidden in its frame as a "blind hook", leading the agents specialised in the fight against drug trafficking to step up their surveillance in the Port of Valencia. As for what happened with this attempt to introduce drugs into the port, Valenciaport has decided to collaborate with other countries, since the seizure of the cocaine introduced in the helicopter has led the Dominican Republic's National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) to open an investigation centred on the port of Caucedo. 

The exponential increase in maritime drug trafficking has intensified collaboration with South American countries like Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and even Mexico, which are completely open to collaborate with Valenciaport in the increasingly brutal fight against drug traffick and contraband.

Not only does this articles serve as an example, there are many others in which we can see the day to day trafficking of illegal substances which, fortunately, is reduced every year thanks to the excellent action and intervention of the authorities and the state forces

Bales of cocaine confiscated by the guardia civil

VALENCIAPORT AND ITS COMMITMENT TO THE ENVIRONMENT

As for the environmental impact of a port, we can imagine how the combustion produced by ships pollutes the water and destroys marine habitats in the area, can we not? Not in Valencia Port; all port activity, carried out to boost the economic growth and commercial influence of the community, is regulated by the APV's Environmental and Energy Policy, which includes the general environmental principles and continuous improvement to ensure that port activity is respectful to the environment.

Amongst the improvements that the port of Valencia wishes to implement are the following : 

The improvement of water quality The port of Valencia is concerned that its waters are cleaner than most of the 30 leading ports in the world, where we have previously spoken of the twenty-ninth position it occupies.

In addition to this, the Port Authority of Valencia monitors and controls the quality of the waters of its ports with the daily cleaning of the water mirror. It also carries out periodic studies to control the quality of the water, following the requirements of the Water Framework Directive, and has an Interior Emergency Plan and a Contingency Plan, in addition to the plans of the various concessions, for the fight against pollution by oil spills, drawn up by the APV. 

The fight against and prevention of spillages is another of the reasons why the port of Valencia is fighting, which we will explain more specifically, since as we have previously mentioned, the APV also has an Internal Emergency Plan and a Contingency Plan, in addition to the respective Emergency Plans of the various port concessions, for the fight against pollution caused by hydrocarbon spillages.

The improvement of the air quality: What the port seeks is to reduce emissions, thus considerably improving the quality of the air and reducing the damage that the activity of the port generates on the ozone layer.

More specifically, Valenciaport, we can observe that it is really aware of the environment, not only with all the above mentioned, but also, the Port Authority of Valencia carries out the monitoring of the air quality through an Air Quality Control Network composed of different air quality control cabins, with sensors according to the standard of the Centre for Energy, Environmental and Technological Research (CIEMAT), also Valenciaport has three meteorological stations, two particle collectors and also computer tools that integrate and manage the data in real time.

The improvement of the acoustic quality: in this case, we go directly to technicalities such as the fact that the Port Authority of Valencia monitors and controls the acoustic emissions from the port environment, for this it has the predictive noise maps to evaluate the expected noise levels, also some static maps of the three ports that offer an empirical measurement of the noises and a network of sound level meters that measure in real time in the strip between ports and the city.

With this measure we can see that the port is concerned with the smallest detail, such as the noise that can be made and the consequences that can be caused if it is not improved. This means that thanks to these measures, the port workers will have fewer long-term consequences resulting from the great noise they have to endure in the port.

The adequacy of dredging: as this concept cannot be understood by everyone, we will start by explaining what dredging is. Dredging is the operation that consists of cleaning and deepening a body of water by removing rocks and sediments. It is carried out to increase the depth of a navigable canal or river, in order to increase the capacity to transport water, thus avoiding flooding downstream.

In this case the Port Authority of Valencia carries out dredging and maintenance work to ensure accessibility and manoeuvrability. These actions are carried out by means of a rigorous procedure that minimises the environmental impact and with machinery specially designed for this purpose.

Waste management: In this case, the issue is as simple as the Port Authority of Valencia guaranteeing the correct management of waste generated by the activity of concession companies and ships in port facilities.

For the management of this waste that we have mentioned, the Port Authority of Valencia has selective collection containers, as well as a collection point for hazardous waste. It also has a Waste Transfer Centre (WTC) and a MARPOL waste collection and treatment plant, the service of which is provided by authorised external companies.

In order to better understand several concepts mentioned above, we should know that "MARPOL waste" is the term used to refer to the waste generated during the service of the vessels, as well as in their maintenance and cleaning operations, including waste water and waste other than that of the cargo.

We must also know what transfer stations are, which are urban waste reception centres located in the vicinity of towns and cities, the purpose of which is to enable urban waste collection lorries to unload their waste, thus avoiding having to travel to the treatment centre.

After specifying all the technical characteristics of how valenciaport fights to have a more environmentally friendly port, it should be noted that continuous staff training is also carried out and, through the ECOPORT II project, the APV is carrying out an awareness campaign aimed at the Port Community, whose objective is to achieve maximum synergy in the application of its Environmental Policy.

Moreover, the APV also collaborates with other European ports and organisations to unify criteria and define environmental protection measures in the ports. In this sense, the APV maintains an active policy of participation in international projects, which we find interesting. 

A port worker carrying out the procedure of cleaning the waters around the port

It is worth mentioning the different projects that Valenciaport has carried out and has been able to successfully complete. To this end, we will explain that since 1998 the APV has participated in different R+D+i projects in the environmental field, among which we would like to highlight the following

ECOPORT PROJECT (1998-2001): Towards an Environmentally Friendly Port Community (Financed by the EU LIFE Programme).

INDAPORT PROJECT (2000-2003): System of Environmental Indicators for Ports (Financed by the Programme for the Promotion of Technological Research (PROFIT) of the Ministry of Science and Technology).

HADA PROJECT (2002-2005): Automatic Environmental Diagnosis Tool (Financed by the EU LIFE Programme).

ECOPORTS PROJECT (2002-2005): Information Exchange and Impact Assessment for Enhanced Environmental-Conscious Operations in European Ports and other Terminals (Financed by the EU's 5th Framework Programme). Improvement of Environmental Management in the ports of the Gulf of Honduras (2008).

MADAMA (2005-2008): Risk Management for Dangerous Goods Traffic in the Mediterranean (Financed by the Interreg III Programme 2005-05-3.2-E-008).

NoMEPorts (2005-2008): Noise management in European ports (Financed by the EU LIFE Programme and based on the European Directive 2002/49/EC on Noise Control and Management).

SIMPYC (2005-2008): Port and City Environmental Integration System (Financed by the EU LIFE Programme).

SECUR MED (2004-2007): Interregional and Transnational Vision on Maritime Safety and Environmental Protection in the Western Mediterranean (Financed by the Interreg IIIB Medoc 2000/2006 Méditerranée Occidentale Programme).

MESOSPORT (2006-2008): Guide for the elaboration of sustainability reports in ports (Financed by the Ministry of Development).

ELEFSINA BAY 2020 (2007-2010): Collaboration for the environmental improvement of the port-city relationship, as a support for the implementation of an Environmental Management System in the ports of the Bay of Elefsina (Financed by the EU LIFE Programme).

ECO-LOGISTYPORT(2008-2010): Environmental training for logistics-port SMEs in the Valencian Community, taking as a reference the methodology developed in the ECOPORT Project. Co-financed by the European Social Fund, through the Fundación Biodiversidad and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia.

EFICONT (2009-2010): Energy Efficiency in Container Port Terminals, with measures in the fields of organisation and technology (Financed by the Ministry of Development).

CLIMEPORT (2009-2012): Initiatives of the Mediterranean ports to fight against climate change and emissions: control of greenhouse gases generated by port activities (Financed by the MED programme of the European Union).

GREEN CRANES (2012-2014): Green Technologies and Eco-Efficient Alternatives for Cranes and Operations at Port Container Terminals.

GREENBERTH (2013-2015): Promotion of Port Communities SMEs role in Energy Efficiency and GREEN technologies for BERTHING operations The main objective of this project is to promote the access of SMEs to energy efficiency and green technologies.and ships in port facilities with a special focus on port-ship operations (financed by the European Union's MED programme).

As can be seen, Valencia Port is not only an entity that manages the fourth most important port in the whole of Europe, but it is also concerned with the territory in which it is established in terms of both the economic environment; protecting the local industry that so many exports cause, environmentally, reducing the climate footprint caused by the usual activity in the port as much as possible and respecting environmental protection agreements and finally, protecting the port itself from drug trafficking and smuggling so that both the community and the port facilities are completely safe and to ensure that this does not affect commercial activity carried out in the area

A nice view of a cargo ship being loaded on one of the docks of the port