Europe's
environmental and human rights activists have taken strong exception to the
continent's shipowners visiting Alang on a promotional tour, but regretted,
representatives of non-government organizations (NGOs) were "denied
access" despite a promise earlier.
Patrizia
Heidegger, Executive Director, NGO Shipbreaking Platform, Brussels, has said in
a statement that the European ship owners, government representatives of
France, Germany and Belgium, and the European Commission were to visit the
Alang shipbreaking yards.
Yet,
Heidegger added, "Despite several indications that NGOs, including the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform, would be part of the delegation, no NGO was invited to
join in the end."
“We
were clearly not welcome to join this visit. Critical civil society voices are
not wanted in Alang – neither by ship owners, nor by the yards – this confirms
the lack of transparency under which the yards in Alang operate,” said
Heidegger.
The
delegation visiting Alang had, in its itenirary, showed that it would have no
meeting with trade union representatives or workers, and would only visit a
selection of very few yards.
The
visit is organised by industry association ECSA (European Community Shipowners’
Association) that represents the interests of European ship owners.
:It
is an attempt by both ship owners and certain yards in India to convince
European policy makers that yards in Alang should be approved for the upcoming
EU list of accepted ship recycling facilities", Heidegger said.
"However",
the NGO top representative added, "Under the European Ship Recycling
Regulation and the recently published technical guidelines on the requirements
for ship recycling facilities, it is clear that beaching facilities do not
qualify for the European Union list."
Heidegger
claimed, "Local environmental groups have raised several concerns related
to the deplorable working conditions, poor downstream waste management and
continued pollution of the coastal waters in Alang."
“We
share the Gujarat-based NGOs’ concerns and demand that European ship owners do
not settle for double standards", Heidegger said, adding, "European
ship owners should only use facilities that operate at a level which is
accepted in the European Union. The low-cost method of beaching will not
feature on the European Union list.”
The
visit was organized around the time when ship recycling activities at Alang,
situated in Gujarat’s Bhavnagar district, have picked pace in the last three
months.
Between
January and March, say reports, a total of 120 old ships beached there — nearly
80 per cent more than the number of ships that visited the yard during the same
period in 2015.
“In
the last three months of the previous financial year, we have seen a lot of
activities. The number of ships that visited Alang during this period is almost
the total number of vessels beached here during the first three quarters of
2015-16,” captain Sudhir Chadha, port officer at Alang, has been quoted at
saying.
Only
129 ships beached at Alang for recycling between April 2015 and December 2015,
when the business witnessed one of the worst slumps. From January to March
2015, only 67 vessels had come to the yard.
However,
another calculation said that business at Alang had still not become normal,
with just only 249 ships reaching the yard during 2015-16 — an eight-year low.
Such lows were seen only during the 2006-07 slowdown, when 136 ships visited
Alang.
Meanwhile,
the shipbreakers at Alang blamed the “poor performance” on the Baltic Dry Index
— which measures the rates paid to hire ships of different sizes to transport
dry bulk commodities.The Baltic Dry Index hit an all-time low in February this
year.
The
freight market was down, and so it was becoming unviable for ship owners to
hold onto their old ships or operate them. Such ships were easily available in
the international markets at affordable rates to shipbreakers.
However,
at Alang, the ship breakers complained, they were still struggling. The steel
prices continued to remain low, and the infrastructure and real-estate sector
continue to underperform.
The
worst months of 2015-16 were October and August when only four and nine ships,
respectively, came to be broken. The best month has been February 2016, when 50
ships arrived.
Source: counter view. 2 May 2016
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