Pakistan’s
ship recycling industry is looking at following the lead taken by its
neighbours in making the industry safer and greener. Both India and Bangladesh
have been looking to clean up their act in the wake of international ship
recycling regulation and an increasing awareness by owners that they need to
find greener alternatives for recycling their ships amid pressure from NGOs.
Now the time has come to improve conditions at the Gaddani shipbreaking yard in
Balochsitan, according to experts attending an Islamabad forum convened by the
Climate Change Ministry in collaboration with the United Nations Environment
Programme (UNEP).
Pakistan’s
failure to comply with more stringent shipbreaking standards puts up to 200,000
jobs at risk, the forum was told. There are some 130 yards over 10 km of
waterfront at Gaddani, whose combined revenues are around Rs8bn a year.
“Efforts are
being made with the help of experts from the UNEP to ensure that environmental
protection and labour safety standards are enforced at the Gadani shipbreaking
yard,” said Climate Change Ministry joint secretary Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta, who is
also the national project coordinator of the Environmentally-Sound Management
of Waste from Ship Dismantling in Pakistan.
Pakistan
will institute a project to focus on the development of inventories of
hazardous waste and other waste at Gaddani. Following the development of
inventories, plans will be developed to assist the government and industry to
establish the requisite infrastructure for environmentally safe ship recycling,
according to the minister.
Source: 18 August 2015
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