Shipbreaking industry offers the
promise of employing thousands of hitherto jobless workers in Bangladesh. The
sector today supports the country's steel, shipbuilding and other heavy and
light engineering industries. Some of the recycled materials are exported, and
the rest is sold and reused within the country. A lot of the materials are of
high value to the local economy. In particular, recycling of steel for
producing iron rods for construction, plates for new ships or for many other
purposes is a lucrative business. According to a FE report published late last
week, Bangladesh emerged as the third largest shipbreaking nation in the world
in 2013; in 2012, its ranking was the second.
However, problems regarding
safety, health and environmental issues have created a negative image for the
industry, despite its positive contribution to job creation in a country with a
high rate of disguised and open unemployment. Only the other day, three workers
were seriously burnt when fire broke out in a scrap vessel in Sitakunda in
Chittagong. Previously, shipbreaking was done in industrial nations, but
because of its hazardous nature of operations, it has been shifted to South
Asian countries where safety and environmental regulations are more relaxed.
About 90 per cent of shipbreaking in the world is done in India, Bangladesh,
Pakistan and China.
The shipbreaking industry has,
however, great potential in Bangladesh, having one of the longest coastlines.
But then there must be adequate safeguards for workers' safety and
environmental hazards associated with it. The International Maritime
Organisation (IMO) has been trying to implement
guidelines/regulations/conventions for qualitative improvement of shipbreaking
industry around the globe since 2003. The 'Hong Kong International Convention
for Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships' is one of them. The Hong
Kong Convention (HKC) was adopted in May 2009 and will come into force upon fulfilment
of some requirements. It is applicable to all merchant ships greater than 500
gross tonnage as well as to all ship-recycling facilities. The European
Commission, too, is going to enforce the 'European Regulation on Ship
Recycling'. One of the key issues of both regulations, which directly affect
the ship recycling industry, is the authorisation of ship-recycling facilities.
Many ship recycling yards which are not up to the mark, may be eliminated
because of restricted authorisation of ship recycling facilities.
It is still possible to turn
ship-breaking into a safe and green industry which is considered a hazardous
job. India, Bangladesh and Pakistan account for almost 70 per cent of world
shipbreaking in gross tonnage. According to a survey, over 1,00,000 workers
are engaged in the ship-reaking industry in Bangladesh. Accident-prone,
shipbreaking is still an informal industry, lacking basic amenities. Dialogue
among employers, workers and the government is necessary to change the
situation. At present, ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh occupy 12.78 kilometre
area at Sitakunda while about two nautical miles of sea water have become
contaminated by the industry. Shipbreaking should be made a safer and greener
industry. But the South Asian region, as
a group, should create a pressure on the developed countries, which build
ships, to take the responsibility for permanent disposal of hazardous shipping
wastes.
Shipbreaking is definitely going
to be affected, in one way or other, by the upcoming regulations. To hold
Bangladesh's position in world shipbreaking, there is no other alternative but
to comply with the HKC. However, it is not possible to comply with the HKC
overnight. The country must upgrade the infrastructure for upstream and
downstream waste management, and health and safety issues of the workers before
trying to get the approval for facility of the yard. Bangladesh does need to
start the process right now; otherwise, it might lose the business of
shipbreaking in the near future.
Source:
the financial express. 25 January 2014
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