The British Navy ship HMS Cardiff left unexpectedly on Friday after public health authorities, impeded the ship from disposing of its garbage here. According to Hoy newspaper, an officer of the Departamento de Sanidad Vegetal on service at the port did not allow the British ship to unload its solid wastes in the Dominican port. As a result, Commander Neil Morisetti ordered the departure of the ship. Reportedly, the DR is signatory of the Marpol agreement which requires the DR to offer services of an incinerator, and cystern trucks for discharging of sewage from the ship. Captain Francisco Belliard, director of operations of the Dominican Port Authority says these facilities do not exist. He says that so far the lack of these facilities has not been a major problem as ships do not request this service from the Dominican port [are they unloading their wastes at sea, then, something the British Navy ship refused to do?] The British Navy ship had docked at 9 am on Thursday and left on Friday without carrying out any of the planned activities.
