NGOs call for the relocation of the industry to
facilities equipped for safe and clean recycling
Brussels/Islamabad, 19 October 2018 - On 11 October a
tanker caught fire at the Gadani shipbreaking beach that holds a deplorable
record of life threatening accidents. Fortunately, no casualties were recorded.
Only a few days later, on 14 October, yet another oil tanker named KRITI (IMO
9270737) caught fire, this time injuring seven workers, three of which are in a
critical condition.
The Platform has reported a series of accidents
following the catastrophic explosion that killed at least 29 workers and injured
58 on the 1st of November 2016. Since then, there have been at least five more
fires caused by unsafe cutting operations. Difficult access for firefighters, a
severe lack of ambulances and no hospital in the close vicinity of the yards
aggravate the conditions, as reported by trade unions.
Following the major blast in 2016, Pakistani
authorities imposed a ban on the import of tankers in addition to a ban on
cutting operations. The ban on import was however lifted in April 2018 after 18
months’ freeze. Due to the use of the low-cost method of beaching and the
favorable steel market conditions, the Gadani yards offer high prices for
end-of-life ships, and soon 22 tankers were waiting for the cutting ban to also
be repealed. One local breaker nonetheless started scrapping the VLCC ADA
before the authorities lifted the cutting ban, and a fire erupted onboard the
tanker in July. Despite the accident, and the fact that few measures had been
put in place to ensure safe working conditions, the government issued cutting
permissions in late August, putting the life of the workers in danger and
prompting the import of additional vessels.
“Ship owners should be held accountable. They
carelessly sell vessels to cash buyers that bring the ships to the Pakistani yards.
The high profit margin is a clear indicator of destination: the higher the
price, the worse the yard”, says Ingvild Jenssen, Director of NGO Shipbreaking
Platform. “We are concerned over the political clout ship owners seem to enjoy:
Greek owners alone are responsible for 1/3 of the ships that are currently
beached in Gadani, yet Greece is pushing hard to undermine European laws aimed
at improving practices globally”, she adds.
In contrast to the fire that broke out in July
onboard a vessel that had not received cutting permission, the Balochistan
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had approved the breaking of both vessels
that caught fire last week. The two accidents underpin that not only the ship
owners and yard operators fail to take necessary precautions, but also that the
Balochistan EPA acted negligently when approving the work to start. Fires occur
when vessels that are not properly cleaned from highly inflammable residual oil
are cut with blowtorches.
“Without having conducted a proper inspection, the
Balochistan Environmental Protection Agency first issued NOC (no objection
certificate) for the breaking of the Kriti crude oil tanker. After the blast
that injured seven workers, they issued a ban on all shipbreaking activities in
Gadani, leaving hundreds of workers unemployed. We call on the authorities to
take serious steps to move the industry away from the Gadani beach and to a
location where proper infrastructure can ensure safe working conditions and
pollutants can be controlled”, says Dr Muhammad Irfan Khan, professor at the
Islamabad University and Board Member of the NGO Shipbreaking Platform.
CONTACT
NGO Shipbreaking Platform
Tel.: +32 (0) 26094419
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