Empowering migrant women in Mumbai shipyards:

Women self-help groups in Mumbai support efforts of IMF affiliate MPTDGWU to improve working and living conditions of the migrant workers' families around the shipbreaking yards

INDIA: Women self-help groups met a delegation from the International Metalworkers' Federation in Mumbai, January 2010, to explore ways to improve working and living conditions at the shipbreaking yards.

The situation of the workers' families settled around the shipbreaking yards in very precarious conditions is completely disregarded by employers and local authorities. No housing  facilities, drinking water, sanitation or schooling  are provided for the families of the migrant workers who have followed  the men of the family engaged in the shipbreaking yards. The women, in the minority among thousands of workers, are often harassed, cheated or abused by the local mafias. Small children roam around barefoot and in rags in an extremely hazardous environment.  No job opportunities or formal education are available for any members of the families.

The IMF discussed with its affiliate in Mumbai, the Mumbai Port Trust Dock and General Workers' Union (MPTDGWU) how to improve the living conditions of the workers and, in the framework of the current  organising  project for the shipbreaking workers, how to support the women.

A group of over 40 women activists and unionists from self-help groups formed in residential communities near the shipbreaking yards met with representatives of IMF and UK affiliate GMB on January 20, to speak about their own experiences and to jointly explore possibilities of creating women's groups among the ship breakers' families. The constituted self-help groups, supported by public funds, seek to build up women's self esteem, teach them basic skills in economic literacy, health, nutrition and childcare. These groups have gained access to micro-credits, thus the opportunity to set up small income generating activities such as preparing food for workers, selling vegetables and tailoring, which improve the families' income.

Ms Manisha Pendurkar, vice-president of the trade union federation Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS) in Maharashtra, and Ms.Vrishali V. Rane, president of one the self-help groups, propose to expand the groups to the surroundings of shipbreaking yards by setting up basic health care centres for children and pregnant women to attract the interest and support of the workers.

IMF and GMB promised to look for support for this initiative and to maintain close contact with this group of women activists in Mumbai and to develop a programme for the workers' families.

Source: International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF). Suzana Miller. 4 February 2010

http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=22016

Judge: Ghost Fleet pollution illegal

For decades, the U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD) and its parent agency, the Department of Transportation (DOT), have moored dozens of decrepit and non-operational former military support vessels in San Francisco Bay and abandoned them to the ravages of time and weather, as seen in this B-roll.

More than twenty tons of heavy metals – lead, cadmium, zinc, copper, and others neurotoxins – have already fallen off these vessels into the center of California’s fragile Bay-Delta, which provides critical habitat for numerous endangered and threatened species.

Today, a federal court in Sacramento, California, ruled that the ongoing pollution caused by MARAD’s neglect is illegal.

MARAD has known about this illegal toxic pollution for more than a decade, but had an affirmative policy of ignoring it until NRDC, and our partners Arc Ecology and Baykeeper, sued. As described in court filings, internal MARAD documents and testimony obtained through litigation reveal that MARAD has been aware since the late 1990s that Suisun Bay ships were discharging hazardous, lead-based paint to Suisun Bay.

For example, one internal memo from 1997 warned that “exfoliating paint on MARAD ships is an issue that must be addressed,” that “lead paint waste … will be classified as hazardous under RCRA,” and that discharges “are prohibited by federal, state, and local environmental regulations.” And in 2000, DOT’s inspector general reported that MARAD’s non-retention ships were “literally rotting and disintegrating” into the water. Yet when MARAD discovered the pollution, the agency made a conscious policy decision to do nothing to stop the discharge, failed to seek required permits, and continued to miss disposal deadlines set by acts of Congress.

There are two lessons in this story.

• The first is that the government itself sometimes acts as if it is above the law.
• The second is the power of litigation in the hands of private citizens to bring dysfunctional government into line.

Through our lawsuit, which the California Regional Water Quality Control Board ultimately joined, NRDC, Arc Ecology, and Baykeeper are accomplishing what even Congress found itself incapable of accomplishing. After the lawsuit was filed, MARAD began taking steps to remove a few of the most decrepit ships and to clean others. I blogged about this in October in my blog, 2vessels (almost) down, 55 to go. Much work remains to be done.

These measures are welcome, whether prompted by a change in Administration or the prospect of an imminent trial that could be prove embarrassing to a federal government that is supposed to enforce environmental laws rather than break them. But the work MARAD has done to date is not enough. MARAD has recently shown some signs of being willing to move further, faster. We hope that it will.

Today’s ruling underscores the need for MARAD to halt its illegal conduct immediately. If MARAD does not submit to a prompt, thorough, and enforceable plan to fix the problem, NRDC and its co-plaintiffs will seek an order requiring a cleanup when trial commences in June.

Source: Switch Board. Natural Resources Defense Council. By Michael Wall.

21 January 2010

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/mwall/judge_ghost_fleet_pollution_il.html 

Norway: Stricter controls on hazardous waste carried by ships launched

Oslo - 5 Norwegian government agencies are now tightening controls on the export and import of hazardous waste by tankers and bulk carriers. The challenge is to find illegal cross-border transport of hazardous waste when in the course of every year there are up to 100,000 shipping movements into Norwegian ports.

In May 2007 several tanks at the Vest Tank facility in Gulen in Sogn og Fjordane exploded. The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority (SFT) reported the company and the transport company Trafigura for having illegally imported hazardous waste, among other things. “Experience from this incident has shown a need for stronger, more coordinated and efficient control over the import and export of hazardous waste to and from Norwegian ports by the Authority,” says SFT director Ellen Hambro.

Strengthening and coordinating control of shipping: The Norwegian Pollution Control Authority took the initiative for a working group with the Directorate for Civil Protection and Emergency Planning, the Norwegian Coastal Administration, the Norwegian Maritime Directorate and the Customs and Excise Authority to develop improved control over the export and import of hazardous waste by tanker and bulk carrier. The 5 government agencies all have different control functions connected with ships’ arrival at and departure from Norwegian ports.

“It is important to make use of each other’s competence, computer systems and presence so that together we are better prepared to reveal and prevent the illegal import and export of hazardous waste,” says SFT director Ellen Hambro. “The agencies are now sending a joint report to the Ministry of the Environment in which we present a proposal for increased controls over the export and import of hazardous waste by ship. Together we will establish routines and warning systems that will improve our ability to reveal the illegal import or export of hazardous waste by ship,” says SFT director Ellen Hambro.

The 5 government agencies have therefore developed a system for filtering out the most likely ship movements. “We intend to discover the very few cases of illegal activity. This should occur without disturbing all the legal transports and without using a disproportionate amount of resources. We now propose an effective and coordinated control system in which the probability of disclosing illegal activities is so great that it will deter potential law breakers,” says SFT director Ellen Hambro.

The physical controls will mainly be carried out during loading and unloading or at the reception facilities for hazardous waste after unloading. The new system will include control of documents, visual control and, if necessary, sampling and analysing the cargo. The controls will also depend on observations that give cause for suspicion by those in the public service in the pilot service and traffic control. The new system from 2010 will supplement the controls SFT already makes of onshore facilities that handle or generate hazardous waste.

“The exchange of information and coordination of action across national borders to prevent the illegal transport of hazardous waste is very important. It will not be sufficient for only us in Norway to sharpen up controls, other countries must do so as well. We will therefore work internationally to achieve better control of the cross-border transport of hazardous waste in ships,” says SFT director Ellen Hambro.

Source: RecyclingPortal.EU (Sourced from Norwegian Pollution Control Authority). 11 December 2009

http://www.recyclingportal.eu/artikel/23323.shtml

Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property:

WHOEVER cheats and thereby dishonestly induces the person deceived to deliver any property to any person, or to make, alter or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security, or anything which is signed or sealed, and which is capable of being converted into a valuable security, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

-Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860

Dishonesty hit the atmosphere:

THE irony of a cover story on climate change is too unsubtle to miss in this 420th issue of the magazine. A fraudulent attempt to sabotage a 15-year multilateral process has brought into the debate even those who never discuss it because climate change politics is immediate enough and dirty enough to compete with any other cloak-and-dagger political intrigue story.

It has been obvious from the beginning the rich countries do not want to pay for what they need to do. They agreed to common but differentiated responsibilities under a moral obligation, but now, there is no fig leaf. They openly run down the idea of equal entitlements to the atmosphere.

They do not even blush before disowning responsibility for the historical emission that caused the climate to change. They do not want to offer financial and technological help to poorer countries to achieve growth without carbon emission. What they are on the lookout for is opportunity to fish in dirty water, make money out of climate change. More obvious fraudulent behaviour is not easy to identify.

But it is the environment minister’s letter to the prime minister that has been the talk of the town. It suggested an about-turn in India’s position to align it with climate criminals of the world. It cannot be ignored as an innocent effort of a dealmaker.

Fraudulent behaviour has always marked climate negotiations. Trusting the market to tackle climate change is itself dishonesty how can a problem get solved by the tools of an economic system that created it in the first place?

Aubergine with the new gene

THERE are valid concerns that the poor farmers of India four-fifths are small and marginal should not be left to the vicissitudes of the market. Countries that promote the private sector in agriculture can do so because they have millions of dollars of subsidies to protect their farmers. The Indian government, though, wants the farmer to live off the private sector without any real support. Genetically modified crops are driven entirely by the private sectors profit motive.

The big fraud in India’s GM story, though, is on the consumer. The government has never had a public debate on whether we need GM food. It is controversial across the world, and the precautionary principle the bedrock of health and environmental regulations demands it not be allowed till all reasonable doubts have been allayed. Without labeling, the consumer cannot make an informed choice. Regulators say they know all they need to know and the consumer should trust them.

India’s regulators of genetically modified crops have been viewed with suspicion for their proximity to industry. They occupy an office that requires they defend the trust Indians place in the government. That trust requires the reasons for their decisions are public, unambiguous and in line with their mandate. Instead, the regulatory system works under industry’s influence. This is defrauding public trust.

The name of the toxic game:

A SHIP awaiting breaking at the Alang yard in Gujarat has a murky past. Activists have shown the ships owners changed its name to dodge US regulations that prevent sending toxic materials, including ships, to other countries for recycling. The Basel Convention, an international treaty, bars rich countries from dumping their toxic wastes on poor countries.

The fraud here is not limited to the owners registering the ship under a new name. The shipbreaking yards owners, who compromise health and safety of workers, are equally fraudulent.

Source: Down to Earth. 15 November 2009

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/node/2708

Fears over sub scrapyard decision:

Eight disused submarines are already being stored at Devonport 

An anti-nuclear campaigner has raised concerns officials have already decided Plymouth should be a scrapyard for decommissioned nuclear submarines.

Ian Avent, who sits on the Submarine Dismantling Project (SDP) consultation advisory group, said he feared it was a "done deal" for Devonport Dockyard.

His concerns come after the SDP panel, which is to recommend how to dispose of submarines, lost two members.

The government said that no decision had been taken yet.

The UK currently has a fleet of 27 nuclear submarines.

Eight disused vessels are being stored at Devonport, ahead of being dismantled, while seven are at Rosyth, in Fife.

The SDP panel has to decide how to deal with the radioactive and non-radioactive hazardous wastes from the submarines in the short and long-term.

However, earlier this week, government adviser Peter Lanyon resigned from it in protest at the sacking of his colleague, Dr Jane Hunt.

Mr Lanyon said his position was no longer tenable as his views and those of his dismissed colleague were not being considered.

Mr Avent, who is on the SDP panel and is a member of the local pressure group CANSAR (the Campaign Against Nuclear Storage And Radiation), said he was concerned Dr Hunt was sacked because the government was given advice it did not want to hear.

He said: "I'm frightened that it's a done deal. I'm frightened that the consultation might be just window dressing.

"If that's the case, what are we left with? We're left with our councillors and our MPs to defend us."

The government said that it did listen to scientists' advice.

Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who was at the Met Office in Exeter on Friday, said: "We do listen to scientists, including on that issue.

"In the end, government has to make its decisions on the basis of the best scientific evidence available to it.

"We should be by guided by the science and that is the approach that we'll take."

Source: BBC. 6 November 2009

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/8347819.stm