Bangladesh Govt to finalise shipbreaking, recycling policy next month:

The industries minister, Dilip Barua, on Saturday said the government would finalise shipbreaking and recycling policy next month.

Addressing a seminar on ‘ship recycling: Bangladesh perspective’, he said by utilising the experience of China, which has a long experience in ship-breaking, the government was working on the policy, where there would be specific instruction for the stakeholders.

‘The worldwide economic recession never affected our economy for five reasons — self-sufficiency in food production, expanding garments industry, enhanced remittance, rising economic growth, less dependency on credit economy,’ said minister.

Barua also said the government’s next growth target was seven per cent for which sustainable industry was a must.

The minister urged the shipbreakers and owners not to release contaminating materials in the country as they would pose a bid threat both to the people and the environment.

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering department of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology organised the seminar at its council building in the capital.

Ananda Group chairman Abdullahel Baki said in Bangladesh almost 100 per cent materials and equipment collected from scrap ship were recycled.

Contribution of shipbreaking to inland shipbuilding in Bangladesh is 50 per cent but the recent method of scrapping fails to comply with the environmental or safety standards, he said.

Wastes like asbestos, metals, organotins pose serious health hazards to the workers, he added.

BUET vice-chancellor SM Nazrul Islam, pro-vice-chancellor Habibur Rahman, Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering department head Mashud Karim also spoken at the seminar.

Papers titled ‘ship recycling methodology: the present status and the way forward’, ‘legislation, regulations and court orders for shipbreaking and recycling industry in Bangladesh’, ‘ship recycling in Bangladesh: problems and possibility in Bangladesh’ and  ‘socio-economic and environmental impacts of ship recycling in Bangladesh’ were presented at the seminar.

Speakers at the seminar stressed specific rules and regulations as well as practice of pre-cleaning system to improve this thrust sector.

Source: The New Age. 17 September 2011

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