According to a report published by this paper
on October 22, “Bangladesh was the top buyer of scrapped ships in the world in
the third quarter of 2017, followed by India,” as stated by the Brussels-based
Shipbreaking Platform. “During the period, 50 scrapped ships were brought to
Bangladesh and 44 to India, making South Asia the most preferred destination
for scrapping old vessels, which is a hazardous practice for human health and
environment.”
Meanwhile, a total of 227 ships were taken
apart globally, between July and September, while 124 (more than 50 percent)
were broken up on the shores of South Asia. It doesn't matter where those ships
come from or which parties are bringing them to our shores; what matters is the
devastation they leave behind in terms of the human lives lost, the damage they
cause to the health of our people and the environmental degradation we suffer
from because of a lack of regulatory framework to govern ship-breaking in
Bangladesh. The government does not have much data on the number of casualties
in this sector nor do verifiable records exist. However, a joint study
published in 2005 jointly by Greenpeace, FIDH titled 'End of Life Ships, The
Human Cost of Breaking Ships', it was estimated from eyewitness testimonies of
workers, that at least a thousand workers had died in the last few decades.
Those involved in the actual ship-breaking
process, the workers, work mostly without protective gear and are exposed to
all sorts of toxins. The primary reason why Bangladesh tops the charts is
because there is much money to be made here at the cost of human lives. There
is little or no investment by the breakers nor are there any concerted efforts,
either by the government or companies involved in the trade, to contain
pollutants and ensure safe working environments.
As put by the Shipbreaking Platform: “The
prices offered for ships this third quarter have been high in South Asia,
especially when compared to the figures of the first half of the year. Monsoon
rains caused a shortage of local product being available to the domestic steel
mills and have, therefore, driven prices for end-of-life ships up. Whilst a
South Asian breaching yard can pay about USD 400/LDT (large stainless steel
screws), Turkish yards are currently paying slightly less than the USD 250/LTD
offered by Chinese yards.”
No wonder obsolete ships come to die in
countries like Bangladesh! We find that ship owners prefer to circumvent
international waste laws and regulations laid out by EU Waste Shipment
Regulation by falsely declaring that end-of-life ships are still in use when
leaving port, which, in effect, allows them to send these ships for scrapping
to countries like ours. Now if we look at the data, we find that some 1,250
ocean-going vessels reached the end of their service life in 2012 and were
taken apart to recover steel. Unfortunately, some 70 percent of all ships
falling into this category were allowed to run aground on the shores of
countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan where our ship-breaking industry
went to work on them without giving two hoots about environmental concerns.
When we look at the workers' wages in our
ship-breaking industry, it stands at about 2 Euros per day. That is a pittance
compared to the phenomenal profits being made when a ship is broken up.
If we look at the toxic materials that come
out of a dead ship being broken up—materials hazardous to both the workers and
the environment—we begin to comprehend the gravity of the situation. Asbestos,
for instance, is used in engine rooms for having thermal insulation and
fire-resistant properties. While extracting asbestos, workers are exposed to
fibres that can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. These fibrous
materials not only affect the workers on site, rather they get carried home on
clothing and in turn, affect family members too.
Heavy metals including mercury need to be
disposed of properly, which is not done in Bangladesh. Mercury may cause
serious damage to the nervous system. Lead is another metal that can cause
permanent retardation, hearing impairment, loss of vision amongst other things.
Mineral oil is serious business; it can cause explosions, and if it seeps into
the ground or water bodies, it can kill fish and even humans who drink the
contaminated water.
These are just some of the examples of
hazardous materials that the environment and humans are exposed to when a ship
is broken up without proper precautions. We are looking at not just the loss of
aquatic species and livelihoods but long-term health hazards. In this backdrop,
it is necessary to look at the regulatory framework (or lack thereof) that
governs (or does not govern) the ship-breaking industry in Bangladesh.
We recognised the industry under the Labour
Act 2006. The Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995, Section D states
that the owner and importer of ships as well as the users of shipbuilding yards
must ensure that scrapping does not cause any pollution and/or health hazards
through releasing hazardous wastes, while Section 9 goes on to say that in case
of a discharge of excessive environmental pollutant, the person responsible and
the person in charge of the place of occurrence shall take measures to control
and mitigate the environmental pollution.
According to a research paper published in
Marine Policy in 2014, there is a provision under the Environmental Law of 1995
which requires that each and every industry including shipbreaking must have an
“Environmental Clearance Certificate” from the Department of Environment,
Ministry of Forest and Environment.
The government had formulated Draft Rules on
Ship Breaking and Hazardous Waste Management under the Bangladesh Environment
Conservation Act 1995. As we fast-forward to 2011, the Ministry of Industry
released the Ship Breaking and Recycling Rules which have not been adopted. Had
it been adopted, then we could have had a one-stop service under the aegis of
the Ministry of Industry that would have integrated all necessary procedures
and permission while cooperating with other responsible departments and
ministries. The Ship Recycling Board (SRB) would have been the authority for
issuing the various certificates.
A writ petition was filed by Bangladesh
Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA) in 2003 and the High Court ruled that
the government should ensure that imported ships for the purpose of breaking up
must be regulated in line with the requirements laid out in the Basel
Convention 1989. Subsequently, BELA filed another case, BELA vs. Bangladesh
(2006), and again the High Court ruled that the government should formulate
appropriate rules to regulate the industry.
So, we have, in effect, passed six years since
the government's formulation of Ship Breaking and Recycling Rules and nothing
of note has happened. That merely goes to show precisely how much worth the
authorities place on workers' safety and their health and the environment at
large. Until we are willing to place health and safety and protecting the
environment above fast profits, things will remain as they are.
Source: the
daily star. 24 October 2017
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