Half a world away
from here, a high-profile U.N. conference will kick off June 20 to discuss ways
to create a “green” global economy.
For impoverished
countries like Bangladesh, the ramifications could be huge.
A topic that is
bound to be raised at the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20)
in Rio de Janeiro is whether it is possible to engage in economic activities
that can both eradicate poverty but not harm the environment.
For the tens of
thousands of Bangladeshis involved in the ship breaking industry, the decisions
reached in Brazil might determine their future–and not necessarily, in a way
that will help them.
While conference
delegates gather in impressive surroundings to thrash out the world’s problems,
legions of dirt-poor Bangladeshis will do what they have to everyday to
survive: toil away at dangerous jobs for a pittance because they have no other
choice.
A large freighter
that has been beached is being broken up for recycling. Its steel body lies
split open, exposed to the elements.
Dozens of workers
are busy with acetylene torches, showering sparks everywhere.
A huge chunk of
steel is being worked on. The workers, scurrying around barefoot, haul heavy
chunks of metal on their backs and in their bare hands.
The shoaling beach
extends more than 10 kilometers and is located some 30 km north of Chittagong,
the second largest city in Bangladesh.
More than 100 sites
are set up as yards to demolish large vessels.
Decommissioned
ships are run aground and then hauled to the beach with ropes, much as slaves
in ancient Egypt moved huge stone blocks to build the pyramids.
The method is
called “beaching.”
The surface of the
nearby Bay of Bengal is awash with fuel oil. Parts of the beach are thick with
oil, and workers, if they don’t watch their step, can sink in the sand up to
their knees.
It is estimated
that 70 percent of all big ships decommissioned in the world are demolished in
either Bangladesh, India or Pakistan.
Shipbreaking has
been roundly criticized since around 2000 for the damage it causes to the
environment, and the lack of safety provisions for workers–who are paid a
pittance for putting in 11-hour days of strenuous, dirty and dangerous work.
At the site near
Chittagong, Mohammed Jamal Uddin climbed to the deck of a decommissioned vessel
and lamented: “My wage is 25 taka (about 25 yen, or 30 U.S. cents) an hour. I
work 11 hours a day. So I can get only 300 taka at most, including overtime
money.”
Asked why he chose
this line of work, the 42-year-old replied: “I have no choice. We have no
(other) jobs because there are too many people in Bangladesh.”
The shipbreaking
business is highly competitive, a situation that is fueled by extremely low
labor costs.
Workers are
employed on a seasonal basis, or for the several months required to demolish a
single vessel.
Demand for
demolition fluctuates sharply.
For this reason,
operators of ship breaking businesses avoid offering regular employment.
They also cut
corners on safety costs and steps to preserve the environment.
Such cost-cutting
is possible due to the government’s loose regulations on labor and
environmental protection. This only serves to fuel a vicious cycle.
But Nazmul Islam,
secretary of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association, counters the criticism
that operators are sacrificing the environment and safety.
“We are offering
helmets and gloves to workers. But they do not want to use them.”
Immediately after I
interviewed him, one worker who was caught by steel doors while working died in
early May.
According to local
news reports, at least 38 workers died on the job during the past 44 months,
including the man cited above.
Environmental
pollution is another factor.
In 2010, the World
Bank estimated that 38,000 tons of asbestos and 24,000 tons of polychlorinated
biphenyl (PCB) will accumulate in the ship breaking yards in Chittagong in the
next 20 years. It also said that a huge volume of hazardous materials will flow
out to markets for parts removed from the ships.
An official of the
Bangladeshi government’s Ministry of Environment and Forest countered the
estimates, calling them excessive. However, the official conceded that the
ministry has no data on the issue.
Iftekhar Uddin
Chowdhury, a professor of sociology at Chittagong University who has conducted
on-the-spot research, acknowledged there are a number of problems in the ship
demolition industry.
Even so, Chowdhury
said the industry was a vital cog in the economy of Bangladesh because it
employs tens of thousands of workers.
Besides, Bangladesh
has to depend on decommissioned ships for raw materials of steel products
because the country has no iron mills.
“The only way to
improve the industry is through investment,” he said. “But that will prove
difficult if we leave it to the demolition business operators, who tend to see
only short-term profits. That is the problem.”
In neighboring
India, however, people in the industry have already begun to address the
situation.
The world’s largest
ship demolition area is located at Alang beach in Gujarat state, north of
Mumbai. It has 131 operating yards, which account for about 90 percent of the
demolition volume in India, the world’s No. 1 in the industry by volume in
2010.
There, much of the
demolition work has been mechanized, giving India a huge advantage over the
manual labor that is the hallmark of the work in Bangladesh.
Workers also are
provided with more up-to-date equipment.
But the beaching
method, which causes oil to spread on the surface of the sea, is also used
there. But perhaps, not for long.
Plans are being
drawn up to lay concrete on the beach to prevent oil leaking and to construct a
facility to dispose of the oil.
The government of
Gujarat state, which owns the beach, is working with Japan on details of the
project.
The Japanese
government is set to provide yen-denominated loans for the project.
Japan’s involvement
stems from its 2009 decision to adopt the Hong Kong International Convention
for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, which obliges
members to manage hazardous materials appropriately and devise sound methods of
disposal.
If the Hong Kong
Convention takes effect, it will become impossible to demolish ocean-going
ships in facilities other than those that meet certain standards.
Japan is still one
of the world’s biggest maritime powers. It had a 21-percent share of newly
constructed vessels, based on volume, in 2010. The same year, the volume of
ship tonnage effectively owned by Japanese companies amounted to 14 percent on
a worldwide basis.
“If we neglect the
(environment and safety) issues at ship breaking yards, the yards will cease to
exist,” said a source in the Japanese shipping industry.
In Bangladesh,
local nongovernment organizations (NGOs) for environmental protection have
repeatedly succeeded in getting courts to issue operation suspension orders to
ship breaking yard operators since 2009. As a result, ship demolition volume
there has decreased drastically.
The Bangladeshi government
was compelled to compile regulations in 2011 for the first time. However, few
people think the regulations have teeth.
Before and shortly
after World War II, Japan was the main industry player. That honor transferred
to Taiwan in the 1970s. In and after the 1990s, however, India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and China have accounted for more than 90 percent of all ship
demolition in the world.
The demolition
volume has drastically increased since the collapse of U.S. investment bank
Lehman Brothers in 2008. Ships generally have a lifespan of between 20 and 30
years. The large number of vessels that were constructed in and after the
second half of the 1990s will soon be destined for demolition.
But when that
happens, there could be a shortage of shipbreaking yards.
For the companies
in developed countries that construct and operate the vessels, ship demolition
is nothing more than disposal of industrial waste. The transfer of hazardous
materials across national borders was restricted by the Basel Convention that
took effect in 1992.
In the case of
ocean-going ships, however, shipowners’ countries are often different from
those where the vessels were registered. Besides, the ships usually cross
national boundaries, making it difficult to apply the restrictions to those
vessels.
The Hong Kong
Convention is not without its problems, either.
For example, it has
no international inspection system to check demolition facilities.
Source: Shipbreaking
Platform. By Susumu Yoshida. 14 June 2012
http://www.shipbreakingplatform.org/the-asahi-shimbun-rio20-in-south-asia-it-is-survival-that-counts-not-the-environment/
