At least 15 workers were killed and more than
a hundred injured in accidents at different shipbreaking yards in Chittagong
this year with the latest incident occurring on Monday that claimed another
life.
The latest victim, Md Manik, 35, was killed
as he was hit by a crane on the head at SNT Shipbreaking Yard in Lalbegh area
of Sitakunda upazila, said Assistant Sub-Inspector Alauddin Talukder of
Chittagong Medical College Hospital Police Camp.
Experts say the risk of accidents in the
yards increases due to some specific reasons including untrained workers,
unsafe storage and disposal of toxic wastes in the ships and working without
personal protection equipment (PPE).
Mohammad Ali Shahin, Bangladesh Coordinator
of Brussels-based NGO Shipbreaking Platform, said workers are neither trained
up properly nor provided with the PPE.
He added toxic materials of the tanks of
ships are not properly cleaned before beaching in yards that poses a threat to
explosion.
“At least 15 workers were killed and more
than a hundred injured in shipbreaking yards this year,” he said, adding that
at least 159 workers were killed in between 2005 and 2016.
During a recent visit to a number of
shipbreaking yards, this correspondent found workers working without any safety
gear. Some were seen cutting the plates through welding without wearing
eyeglasses and masks.
Mohammad Idris, a shipbreaking worker, lost
the lower portion of his left leg in an accident at a shipbreaking yard on
April 11, 2015.
He said the owners did not provide them with
PPE. “The owners provide safety gears to the workers only the day when the
inspection team from the Department of Environment visits the yard,” he added.
Abu Taher, president of Bangladesh
Shipbreakers Association, however, claimed the owners provide the PPE, but the
workers do not use those as they do not feel comfortable.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of
Bangladesh Environment Lawyers' Association (BELA), said the only way to stop
the accidents is mechanising the entire procedure.
“Workers don't break ships in the developed
countries. It's done by machines,” she said, adding, “Using PPE can only save
workers from minor accidents. It cannot save them from fatal ones.”
Source:
the
daily star. 27 December 2017
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