New Delhi, 26 October 2017 - The NGO
Shipbreaking Platform expresses dismay over the continued failure of the
Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) to be transparent and to grant civil society
access to see the working and environmental conditions at the shipbreaking
yards in Alang. For the past two months, the GMB has turned a cold shoulder to
repeated requests by the Platform, via the Indian member organisation Toxics
Link, to visit the shipbreaking yards on the tidal beach of Alang, where toxic
vessels are broken without containment or stable platforms that other recycling
methods provide. By refusing to reply to the requests to visit the yards, the
GMB has opted to keep the negative environmental and labour impacts of the
operations at Alang out of sight.
Last year, also the European Community
Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA) and the Danish shipping line Maersk excluded
the Platform from joining field visits they organised to Alang. Maersk recently
reversed its ship recycling policy and began breaking ships on the Indian tidal
shore. The return to the beach by Maersk has had the devastating effect of
legitimising across the industry the beaching method, which inherently pollutes
coastal areas and exposes communities to toxins, conditions that the GMB wants
to conceal.
“In dismissing the Platform’s request to
visit Alang, the GMB has chosen to protect industry attempts to green-wash the
dirty and dangerous breaking of ships on beaches. This lack of openness is
disappointing and represents a decision by the GMB to keep Indian ship
recycling in the dark ages”, says Ingvild Jenssen, Director and Founder of the
NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
The European Commission is anticipated to
prohibit the recycling of EU-flagged ships in beaching yards when it publishes
its upcoming list of approved ship recycling facilities in non-EU countries.
The EU list represents an important turning point for sustainable ship
recycling by setting a benchmark for an industry in which standards have been
historically absent.
CONTACT
Ingvild JENSSEN
NGO Shipbreaking Platform
Executive Director and Founder
Tel.: +32 (0)2 6094 419
Source: NGO
Shipbreaking Platform. 26 October 2017
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