The NGO Shipbreaking Platform, an
18-NGO-consortium working against the dumping of ships along the coasts of
Southeast Asian nations – where they are essentially left for scrap – has said
365 ships from EU nations are now rusting along the coasts of India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh.
Charles Digges, 05/02-2013
Bellona’s Svend Søyland, who is also
represents Bellona in the NGO Shipbreaking Platform has said that Bangladesh is
by far the worst-hit nation. The coasts are littered with ships packed with
toxins such as asbestos, oil and other substances that are highly hazardous to
humans and the environment.
According to current figures, of the 1308
ships that were broken among India, China, Bangladesh, Turkey, Pakistan, and
other Southeast Asian nations in 2012, 822 where broken in environmentally
dangerous conditions on beaches. In addition, 107 ships are unaccounted for but
breakdown locations are most likely beaches.
Of particular concern in Bangladesh are the
droves of unskilled workers – many of them children – who work to dismantle the
rusting hulks sent them by the European Union.
A majority of these ship breaking companies
in Southeast Asia are suspected of having phony green certificates, and nearly
non of them have the correct environmental safety gear for workers that
dismantle them, Søyland said.
The center of the problem is that EU ship
owners sell unwanted, decrepit ships to international middle-man organizations
who then haul them to the cheapest possible locales – a situation that
encourages ship owners to dump their vessels with no further thought to their
environmental disposition.
Bellona, in cooperation with the
Shipbreaking platform, has identified 19 countries within the EU that engage in
this practice, with the biggest offenders being Germany, Greece and Norway.
Germany ship owners have fobbed off some 39
ships on Southeast Asian shores, Norway 37 and Greece a whopping 174.
This would never be accepted on beaches in
Europe, said, Patrizia Heidegger, head of the NGO Shipbreaking Plaform.
Using registers in maritime bases, the
organizations traced ships on Southeast Asian beaches that have been sold to
local shipbreaking firms. Several of the vessels, including those sent from
Norway, changed owner, flag and name.
The prices ship owners can get for vessels
in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are higher than if they had been to
companies using internationally certified drydock shipbreaking facilities. 100
dollar extra per ton adds up.
Several of the companies in India and
Pakistan and ship owners supply green certificates and claim to be
ISO-certified to prove that the ships are broken down in an environmentally and
professional responsible manner.
But
Heidegger, doesn’t buy these certificates.
“[The green certificates are] a new trend,
but it's nonsense,” she told Aftenposten. “It is unclear who is issuing those
certificates and who checks that they are something more than just paper.”
Good money, however, is to be made by
contravening these facilities – the London-based Star Reefers, owned by
Norwegian tycoon Kristian Siem, last year sold six of its vessels for some $6
million, the Norwegian daily Aftenposten reported.
A closer look at the claimed ISO
certificates show they often cover manangement systems (ISO 9001), voluntary
rather than fixed environmental standard (ISO 14001) and Occupational Health
and Safety Management systems to develop policies (OHSAS 18001). None of these
are directly related to the working and environental conditions relevant
breaking of ships, said Søyland.
A representative of Frontline – the world
biggest oil tanker operator, owned by the Norwegian billionaire John
Frederiksen - complained to Aftenposten that, once a ship is sold off, it is no
longer his company’s business what happens to it.
“It is not we who scrape the vessels,”
Jensen told the paper. “It's the ones we sell to, or anyone else. We can not
control what happens when the ships are no longer ours. Sustainable scrapping
of course has our full support, as far as is possible.”
Vice President Eystein Eriksrud in Siem
Industries, part-owner of Star Reefers, told the newspaper that the company
sold two of the ships to a shipyard in Turkey, which guaranteed that they would
be scrapped properly.
But Søyland
was quick to point out that, “Five ships from Star Reefers sent for
shipbreaking on the beaches in Asia outnumber those two. We would welcome a
full transfer of all ships to more responsible scrappers within
OECD-countries.”
Norwegian ship owner Odfjell insists it
receies various certifications for the ships it sells for breaking and a
so-called “green-passport” from the breaking yards they use, according to the
company’s communications director, Margrethe Gudbrandsen.
Bellona’s Søyland said that, “These
so-called Green Certificates were issued by dubious players and quite often set
limits on the overall climate impact,” adding that, “The main issue of concern
is the release of toxic substances and an extremely dangerous working
environment.”
“If ships were wrecked on a beach in
Norway, these companies would quickly be brought to court for environmental
crimes,” he said. “They shout vociferously about their environmental and social
responsibility on their homepages while dumping old ships on beaches in other
countries. It is irresponsible and constitutes a double standard.”
But the Norwegian Shipowners association
(NSA) believes there is currently little to be done as far as its country’s
vessels are concerned because Norway has not signed onto the most important
international agreement on government shipbreaking, the 2009 Hong-Kong
convention.
Unfortunately, the Hong Kong Convention is
a political compromise drafted to allow countries involved in shipbreaking.
Once ratified it will not put an end to shipbreaking on beaches.
The International Maritime Organization
(IMO) is currently putting the finishing touches on guidelines for safe,
environmentally sound shipbreaking. Controlling compliance and undertaking
inspections of these guidelines will be the responsibility of national
entities.
The Bellona Foundation fears that powerful,
well-heeled shipbreakers will be able to turn such oversight into a mere paper
chase.
And the NSA itself told Aftenposten that
shipbreaking facilities it has visited are in reprehensible condition.
Joining the Hong Kong Convention would mean
for Norway and other signatory nations that a ship must be washed before
scrapping as well as providing documents on the toxic waste on board, allowing
those who scrap ships to have more control over what they are taking on.
But, in many cases, cleaning a ship also
means making a ship unsailable and unable to reach dismantlement points, said
Bellona’s Søyland.
And just because a ship owner belongs to
the NSA is no guarantee it will follow guidelines and regulations.
Odfjell, for instance, had seven tankers it
owned turn up last year on a beach in India, Aftenposten reported.
Hanna Lee Behrens, director of security,
safety and innovation of the NSA said that though the NSA contacts members
responsible for such dumping practices, there is not much more beyond that it
can do to assure environmentally safe disposal of the junked ships.
Source: Bellona.
5 February 2013
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2013/shipbreaking_bust
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