The IMO and the
government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh are jointly implementing a
project entitled “Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh –
Phase I” (in short SENSREC Project – Bangladesh).
The project, aimed
at improving the safety and environmental standards within the country’s
ship-recycling industry, consists of five work packages covering:
• Two studies assessing the economic and
environmental impact of the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh;
• An assessment of the prevailing conditions
and needs for environmentally sound hazardous waste management, including the
compilation of a hazardous waste inventory, hazardous waste assessment report
and the preliminary infrastructure design and site selection for a hazardous
waste storage, treatment and disposal facility;
• Recommendations on strengthening the
government’s one-stop service, in which all the various ministries with a
responsibility for ship recycling (e.g. industries, environment, labor,
shipping) offer a single point of contact for related matters;
• A review and upgrade of existing training
courses on occupational health, safety and environmental issues and piloting of
the new training material; and
• The development of a detailed project document
for a possible follow-up project to implement the recommendations of phase I.
In the long term,
the project will assist the industry to eventually meet the requirements of the
Hong Kong International Convention on the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling
of Ships, 2009 (the Hong Kong Convention), so that the government of Bangladesh
may be in a position to accede to the Convention.
The principal
funding for the project comes from the Norwegian Agency for Development
Cooperation (Norad), while the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and
Stockholm Conventions (BRS) also supports the project having mobilized some EU
funding towards the work package related to the management of hazardous
materials, which is partly being implemented by BRS.
The project is
expected to be managed within a budget of $1,516,275 commencing January 2015
(phase I) for a period of 18 months. This amount includes the BRS funds of
$273,603.
The project is
being executed by the Marine Environment Division of IMO, in partnership with
the Ministry of Industries of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi Ministry coordinates
the input from the different stakeholder ministries within the country, while
IMO also collaborates with other relevant UN agencies including BRS, the
International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO) to ensure the successful delivery of the
project.
IMO, the government
of Bangladesh, Norad, and BRS have been working towards the establishment of
this project for a number of years. It demonstrates a major commitment from the
government of Bangladesh to improve safety and environmental standards within
this vital industry, said IMO in a statement.
Source: maritime
executive. 24 April 2015
http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/imo-and-bangladesh-review-shipbreaking-industry
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