The reported death toll obscures the true
horror of what happened in the Gadani ship-breaking yard in Pakistan on Nov 2
when an oil tanker being disassembled caught fire. Twenty-six dead is the count
so far, based on workers' records and the body parts recovered. But the true
scale of this disaster, measured by the number of lives lost alone, will simply
never be known.
 |
Pakistani rangers and workers use a stretcher
to carry a colleague after he was injured in a gas cylinder explosion at the
Gadani shipbreaking yard, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) west of Karachi on
November 1, 2016.
|
And that's because, for the most part, there
is no record of how many people were working on the tanker when it went up in
flames.
These are contract employees without names or
documents, who are happy to get meagre wages for the dangerous work they do.
They are hired without paperwork, thanks to
an exploitative contract system.
No IDs or employment letters are issued.
They ask no questions and - if they do dare
to demand basic safety measures, protection and medical services - are ignored
by the mafias that run the Gadani ship-breaking yard.
If they protest, they are fired and if they
organise unions, the shipyard owners uses goons and sometimes state machinery
to crush them.
What they get paid depends on what category
of worker they fall under.
A 12-hour day working with little or no
protective gear under back-breaking conditions may fetch 600 rupees (S$12.60)
to 750 rupees.
There is no dedicated dispensary at the yard,
and the nearest medical facility is a rundown "hospital" - reportedly
run by the very same contractors that exploit these workers.
In life, they were invisible and uncounted
and, in death, they have left no trace of their existence.
Such was the intensity of the blaze that
firefighters saw the water they were spraying evaporate before it even touched
the flames.
Many workers were incinerated in a blaze that
reduced bone and flesh into ash that was then swept away into the sea.
We will never know how many were lost but one
can draw estimates based on the number of people needed to break down a vessel
the size of the 24,000-tonne tanker.
Ship-breaking Mazdoor Union president Bashir
Mehoodani estimates at least 200 workers would have been needed while others
say the number could be as high as 400.
Deaths and injuries are common at Gadani but
never really make it to the news given that they - until now - occur not in
large single incidents but in isolated ones.
Explosions and accidents are the main cause
of deaths but, again, undocumented are the effects of long-term exposure to
hazardous gases and chemicals on the workers.
Nevertheless, a look at the figures over the
years points to clear neglect and criminal negligence by the Gadani
ship-breaking yard authorities and government departments.
If the lack of basic health facilities and
firefighting equipment is shocking, given the nature of the work done at
Gadani, it will come as no surprise that even a single dedicated ambulance was
not available.
In this context, it seems silly to mention
the basic procedures that should be followed when disassembling an oil tanker,
but mention them one must.
In ship-breaking lingo, this is referred to
as "hot work", and in the case of a tanker like this, it must be
preceded by a thorough cleaning.
The remaining oil has to be manually pumped
out using small air-operated pumps and even buckets - a time-consuming process.
Then, after further cleaning, huge air
blowers and fans are used to dry the residual oil, which again takes several
days.
After this, a certified chemist must give the
all-clear and only then can the actual work begin.
These protocols were not followed at what we
proudly boast of as being the world's second largest ship-breaking yard, and
all for the sake of greed and healthy profit margins.
The federal and provincial governments ask no
question, and why should they when the revenues keep rolling in?
Work at Gadani has picked up again and the
production line has to move along at a rapid clip to make sure that bank
accounts remain healthy.
And if the wheels of unfettered capitalism
have to be greased by the blood and ashes of the nameless dead, then so be it.
Source:
asia one. 15 November 2016
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