It is hard to imagine that Bangladesh
— a bite-size country in the
South Asian subcontinent — can have a monopoly on an industry. But it
does. On top of being a top exporter of textiles and apparel, Bangladesh is
home to a bustling and polemic shipbreaking industry.
According to the Economist, in 2008 Bangladesh accounted for half of the
world’s shipbreaking activities. The industry began in the 1960s, after a Greek
ship, the MD Alpine, washed up on the shores of the southeastern city of
Chittagong. Locals in the area scrambled to dismantle it after realizing that
they could make a profit by selling its parts.
Today, shipbreaking in Bangladesh is a multi-billion dollar industry that
creates jobs and meets a growing demand from European countries for shipbreaking
services. Every year, an average of 250 ships of all shapes an sizes — from
gas tankers, cruise liners to cargo ships
— meet their demise at the hands
of barefooted, mud-faced, scrawny, yet sturdy, young men on the beaches of
Chittagong.
Non-government organizations have repeatedly critiqued the shipbreaking
industry for being hazardous to its laborers. Most workers pry off chunks of
metal from with the help of nothing more than scrapyard blowtorches and
calloused hands. The risk of injury is high, as is sickness from inhaling toxic
fumes and overexposure to asbestos
— a silicate mineral substance
used in shipbuilding that is a known cause of cancer.
Furthermore, most workers are uneducated and unaware of their rights to
file complaints if and when they suffer accidents or sickness. Without legal
representation, they become expendable cogs, laboring for employers greedy for
sizeable profit margins.
The industry has also been accused of resorting to child labor. In
impoverished countries, children are always the most vulnerable demographic
because they do not have to be paid a salary, and their voice is thought less
of.
Shipbreaking poses problems not just for humans, but also for the environment.
Firstly, the industry has transformed what once were pristine beaches in
Chittagong into metallic graveyards dotted over with pools of grime and sludge.
Secondly, some of the debris from dismantled ships gets dragged back into the
ocean, where it threatens marine life.
In 2009, an advocacy group, the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers
Association (BELA), managed to persuade the Supreme Court to ban shipbreaking
businesses that failed to meet certain environmental standards. The court’s
ruling temporarily put a halt to the industry, leaving thousands of workers
without jobs.
President Sheikh Hasina relaxed regulations in 2011 after realizing that shipbreaking
was a profitable industry for Bangladesh. Despite its drawbacks, a World Bank
study showed that shipbreaking in Bangladesh sustains 200,000 jobs. Anyone who
has ever played Sim City knows that taking jobs away leads to riots. In a
densely populated country like Bangladesh (over 150 million squished into
130,000 square kilometers), keeping citizens employed is a must.
Hefzatur Rahman, the president of the Bangladesh Ship Breaks Association,
was thankful for the loosening of regulations, which he believes stunts an
industry that helps Bangladesh in numerous ways. Ship building not only creates
jobs but also supplies over half the country’s steel. According to consulting
company IHS, Bangladesh now holds one-fifth of the shipbreaking industry — a
far cry from its former place at the top spot, but it is a re-start.
Earlier this year, the European Union, no longer wanting to affiliate
itself with the hazards of shipbreaking, proposed legislation stipulating that
European ships can only be sold and delivered to yards in Bangladesh and India
that meet environmental guidelines. These regulations also mandated that all
ships coming from Europe be emptied of any toxic chemicals.
Key figures in Bangladesh’s shipbreaking industry claim that there is no
reason to tighten regulations all over again. The secretary of the Bangladesh
Ship Breakers Association, Nazmul Islam says that the industry is safer now
with features like hospital beds for the injured, modern equipment and proper
storage units for toxic elements like asbestos. The EU is not convinced and is
still pushing for proposals that, if not met, will cast the shipbreaking
industry into another period of austerity.
From an outsider’s perspective, investing in improved equipment and
better working conditions is a small price to pay to keep an industry running
that creates jobs and models the sentiment behind recycling — that is, that one
person’s trash is another person’s treasure.
Source: The Knox Student. 7 November 2012
http://wordpress.theknoxstudent.com/blog/2012/11/07/world-politics-corner-ethics-of-shipbreaking/
