Over the years, there has been a
significant shift in the location of such shipbreaking yards from the European
and American locations to loci in countries in the sub-continent and various
other Asian regions.
On the positive while it has created
innumerable loci in comparatively lesser developed countries, there have been
several con factors as well to this trend of emergence.
The cons have in-turn resulted in the
development of several problems to the international maritime industry not only
in terms of logistics but also in terms of ecological imbalance and marine
pollution to the already precarious maritime domain.
For e.g. the Alang shipbreaking yard
of India has creating a number of job opportunities in the region; however, it
has also led to several other major problems.
Detailed below are 10 such shipbreaking
problems, which emphasis the ambiguity of the shipbreaking industry in bold
clarity. Kindly note that this is not an exhaustive list.
1. Ill-equipped
Facilities:
Ill-equipped ship dismantling
facilities translates to mean improper methodologies while dismantling a
vessel. Apart from European and American ship dismantling yards, the
sub-continental nations boast of a high percentage of ship dismantling yards.
The facilities within these yards however are quite inadequate, almost to the
point of being negligible when compared to their American and European
counter-parts.
In shipbreaking yards of India,
Bangladesh, and Pakistan, many laborers lose their lives because of
ill-equipped facilities and lack of safety.
2. Improper Dismantling
Results:
Another facet of ill-equipped vessel
breaking yards becomes visible post the vessels have been dismantled.
Well-equipped facilities are able to discard the waste materials suitably as
required by stipulated maritime laws while in lesser equipped yards, the
dismantling and the disposal thereafter is not handled, or rather not able to
be handled, apropos to the stipulated regulations. In several shipbreaking yards, the scrapped
material remain unattended for years before any steps are taken. This has even
lead to formation of ship graveyards because of the unattended ships and
scrapped material.
3. Environmental Issues:
Vessels waiting dismantling or in the
process of being dismantled, more often than not contain hazardous materials,
injurious to health. In ship breaking yards, these toxic ships threaten to
poison the surrounding waters of the yard along with the ship dismantlers
engaged in the breaking process. This two-pronged ill-effect compounds the problem
of maritime environmental sustenance. Materials like asbestos, paints
containing mineral components like lead, zinc and cadmium and various other
polluting substances are regarded to be extremely threatening. Some of the
worst toxic ships in the world have created several controversies because of
the poisonous materials present in them.
4. Lack of Disclosure of
Hazardous Substances:
Maritime laws also stipulate that
vessel operators and owners are required to make full revelation of any
toxic/hazardous materials within a ship. Many vessel owners and operators flout
this requirement or in case of a disclosure, reveal incomplete data about the
ship’s particulars. This not only harms the marine environment but also the
workers of shipbreaking yards.
5. Relegation to Less
Equipped ShipBreaking Yards:
The cost factor also poses a problem
while choosing a ship breaking yard. Well-known shipping conglomerates have
been known to compromise with less equipped vessel breaking yards because of
the exorbitant shipbreaking costs. Compromise in terms of costing thus becomes
a potential threat to maritime environmental concerns. As a result, such cheap
and inefficient ship breaking yards have cropped up at several places and are
in high demand, creating grave threats to marine environment and human lives.
6. Lack of Workers’
Safety Net:
Unlike various other organised job
sectors, shipbreaking doesn’t provide any substantial job security benefit to
the workers engaged in it. The absence of a governed payment scheme or safety
net as a way of ensuring the workers’ life and savings results in reflecting
the entire shipbreaking industry in a negative light. Needless to say, safety
of shipbreaking workers- the most important factor to be taken into
consideration is more than often neglected.
The shipbreaking yard workers are thus
exposed to several dangerous hazards.
7. No Regulation of the
Work-force:
Another aspect of the ill-organised
nature of the ship dismantling yards in sub-continental countries is the hiring
of youngsters and children to dismantle the vessels. This results in severe
potential health hazards for such youngsters and children. The trend of hiring
young children is still very much prevalent in shipyards of developing
countries. Poverty and lack of employment are the main reasons for this.
8. Flouting of Prescribed Stipulations:
International maritime bodies have
established several stipulations pertaining to safety in the ship dismantling
sector. However, in spite of such prescribed regulations, there has been a
rampant flouting of these stipulations which has further added to the problems
of the shipbreaking industry.
9. Loss to the Marine
Flora and Fauna:
While dismantling vessels, residual
substances like oil could spill onto the surface of the water surrounding the
vessel breaking yard. In developing countries, no one cares for marine
environment. In such cases, because of the spillage caused by such toxic ships,
marine flora and fauna tend to get severely hampered and hindered. In many shipbreaking
yards, ships are dismantled on beaches itself, leading to utmost pollution and
destruction of marine ecosystem.
10. Loss of Lives of
Workers:
Improper working conditions can also
mean inhumane working conditions, which could result in loss of lives of the
people working in an ill-equipped shipbreaking yard. Lack of safety equipment,
insufficient training, and slack rules and regulations, has lead to death of
many shipbreaking yard workers and the number is increasing each day.
Shipbreaking problems affect the
entire maritime industry adversely. Although the necessity of a shipbreaking
yard outweighs its negative, it still becomes necessary to come up with viable
solutions to tackle the various problems and assuaging the inclement
conditions.
Workable solutions could result in
bringing about better efficiency for the entire shipping domain, which would
improve not only the shipping sector but also various poor economies in the
world.
Source:
Marine Insight. 4 October 2012
http://www.marineinsight.com/misc/marine-safety/10-major-problems-faced-by-ship-breaking-yards/
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