Ship breaking booming as a promising industry

There are over 150 ship-breaking and- recycling yards in Sitakunda upazila along the coast of the Bay of Bengal. Although this huge industry started its journey by cutting old scrap ships at the beginning of 1980s, there was once a frightful situation centering the industry. News of inefficient workers being killed during ship cutting appeared in the newspapers. The lack of developed technical system of ship cutting, training and medical treatment was to blame for the adversities.
Not only that, there were reports in the print media about dead bodies of workers buried under the ground for concealment and depriving their families of compensation provided for in the law of the land. Entry of the media people was prohibited. Until in the recent past, a section of NGOs (non-government organisations) had highly protested and used to send reports outside the country. Such outcry retarded severely the growth of the industry.
Time has changed. A lot of things have changed in the industry, too, with the passage of time. Nowadays such cases of accidents are rare and the newsmen from different media have been frequently visiting the yards, sending dispatches to their headquarters, talking every now and then with workers and owners of the shipyards, sending photographs of the improved situation of the yards. The foreigners are also frequently visiting the yards and coming up with their helping hands, providing technical and financial support, consultancy and medical support. Ambassadors and other high officials from Indian, German, French, Bhutanese, Korean, Malaysian, Dutch and European countries and embassies have been visiting the ship-breaking yards because the environment and management have improved a lot. However, the yard owners feel that there is still a lot to be done for overall improvement of the sector. The owners are fully aware as well that the present government has extended its wholehearted support to the industry and yard owners.
How did it happen and what changes have been brought about? The answer lies in the change of taking the whole gamut of things from a positive attitude. They have learnt to realize that they would have to be much caring if they like to survive in the industry. Cutting workers, who are treated as lifeline in the industry, should be provided with personal protective measures and their children and families welfare.
"The industry cannot progress if we do not provide safety and security for them and their children. We must provide education for their children and housing facilities for the workers themselves." The local entrepreneurs have started to feel this and new blood of entrepreneurship has been injected. People having been educated in the developed countries have taken the steering in some of the industries and they look at the whole gamut of things from a different point of view.
On the other hand, the government has come forward with encouraging schemes in view of immense potential of the ship-breaking and- recycling industry. During Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's previous government, she had declared ship-breaking as an industry as different surveys at that time forecast that the industry has a huge potential, as has been seen in Turkey and other countries.
A joint study conducted by Chittagong University and Tokyo University shows that 39 per cent of the industrial production in Bangladesh comes from this sector. Some 50, 000 people are involved with the industry which is over 1.0 million indirectly. One cannot deny that the industry is inseparable from the economic development and growth of Bangladesh. The industry provides raw material for several thousand small, medium and larger steel industries apart from leaving a host of linkage industries. These industries could not have survived without raw-material support from the ship-breaking and- recycling industry. The industry is contributing a lot to other industries in different countries of Asia, including China, Japan, Thailand, India, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Turkey and Bangladesh.
But there are a lot of challenges the industry in Bangladesh is confronting. Implementation of compliant rules of the Hong Kong Convention and Basel Convention is time-taking while the ship-mantling rules in the European countries are more law-abiding. The industry has yet to formulate guiding rules for proper growth of ship recycling. It requires favourable steps from the government and boldness of the industry entrepreneurs. But some NGOs including BELA (Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association), YPSA (Young Power in Social Action) and Ship Breaking Platform have resorted to multiple pressures for the development of working environmental in the yards. Partially their initiative is welfare-oriented but there is a lot to create suspicion. It seems that they are more concerned with propaganda in the external world than improving working conditions in the industry. As a result, the industry is confronting an uneven competition from other ship-recycling industries of the world. A good number of mainstream industries are showing reluctance in the industry. Out of over 150 ship-breaking yards only 60 have survived at the Sitakunda coastline.
On March 11-12 this year, I went to Singapore to attend an international conference as representative of the BSBA (Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association) and confronted a battle of arguments with other participants. I told the conference that the ship-recycling industry is not only a struggle for survival of the industry-insiders but also related with the economic advancement of the country. We have ensured not only responsibility but also justice, transparency and accountability. If anyone of you has doubt please visit our yards without giving earns to rumours. It is true that all yards are not same but there are a number of yards with whom you can do business. My observations were directed to Mr Tor Christian Splatner, head of environment of the Norwegian Ship Owners Association (NSA), because Tor was highly critical about the ship-breaking industry of Bangladesh and advised others not to sell scrap ships to the yards of Bangladesh. In that Trade Winds Ship Recycling Conference I invited them to visit my ship-breaking yard at Sitakunda. Tor told the conference that they had failed to improve working environment in the ship-breaking yards of Bangladesh despite different attempts.
The Norwegian representative, however, failed to convince other participants as I strongly protested his views. I said why they were not selecting ship-breaking yards responsibly in our country. There are a lot of good yards the owners of which have been responsibly working to improve situation. I also told the conference that the NGOs are winning this battle because the scrap-vessel owners abroad have failed to understand the rhythm in it. "We're not at all afraid of it. Rather you are afraid of candid opinion. The decision you have taken against Bangladesh is not fair, it is rather cowardly. I would say that ship cutting is being done in the same manner in Turkey, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan," I told the conference. I gave a detailed description about my ship-breaking yard at the conference.  
As regards government support I would say that the government has finally undertaken a project to make all yards of ship breaking and recycling industry at Sitakunda sea shore with non-permeable floor under a grant of the Norwegian donor agency NORAD and IMO at a cost of Tk 120 million. Under the project the NORAD and the International Maritime Organisation would extend financial and technical support to making the ship-breaking yards more durable, with treatment storage disposal facility (TSDF) in line with the TSDF system, introduced in the shipyards of Turkey, within next two to three years. If implemented, the new facilities would help improve environment of the yards, make the yards safe for workers, improve waste-reception facility, procurement of water crafts for seaward pollution control and garbage-cleaning crafts/ barges and set up a hospital with total support system.
Leaders of Bangladesh Ship Breakers Association said a delegation comprising representatives of the BSBA, senior government officials from the ministry of industries, ERD (economic relations division), labour and manpower, environment department and explosives department recently visited Turkey to share experience with its ship recyclers. BSBA president MA Taher, BSBA executive member and managing director of PHP Ship Breaking Yard Zahirul Islam Rinku, joint secretaries of industries ministry Yasmeen Sultana and Ziaur Rahman Khan, Saleha Binte Siraj of ERD, ABM Sirajul Huq of labour and manpower, Moqbul Hossain of environment department and Tofazzal Hossain of explosive department, among others, were in the 11-member team to Turkey. The delegation members had elaborate discussion on the implementation of the TSD Facilities with Turkey's government officials at their Maritime Ministry, owners of ship-breaking yards and the director-general of the coastal department.
The ship-breaking industry is committed to supporting proper use of the personal protective equipment (PPE) through training and awareness programmes in course of time. A lot has improved now as the yard owners have engaged themselves in a battle to fight out negative image of the industry with adequate support from the government. Following those image-building steps of the BSBA's new leadership the ambassadors of different European countries recently visited a good number of yards and offered suggestions to improve situation in the country's thriving ship-breaking industry. European Parliament member Jean Lambard also visited the ship-breaking yards at Sitakunda, praised the industry as a very potential sector and invited the representatives of the BSBA to visit the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. I went to Brussels and gave a clear picture on the compliance issues and safety measures taken in the sector over the last few years. The BSBA has signed a contract with a foreign consulting firm, Creative Consultant, for imparting training to the trainers and workers at the shipyards at Sitakunda with the financial support of the Royal Dutch Embassy. The yard directors, yard managers, safety officers, management representatives, foremen, cutter-men and others of at least 30 yards (member yards of the BSBA) have participated in the course.
The industry has been playing a vital role with respect to meeting up the internal needs of iron goods, flourishing the shipbuilding industry, generating huge employment and helping infrastructure development, booming of re-rolling mills, small, cottage and other allied industries which have been significantly contributing to our national economy.
In Turkey we have seen one-stop service centre under which all relevant government agencies are working. They get all required documents including NOC within a week. They have even provisions of getting NOC after dismantling a ship because the ship-breakers in that country are sincere to comply with environmental rules and regulations. We would sincerely follow the norms and rules of waste removal and management in the ship-cutting and- recycling industry in line with the system followed by Turkey and China which are considered models in the ship-breaking industry.
The industry's waste-management system is an improved one in Turkey as the yard owners send the yard wastes to the central purification system. But such a system would cost about Tk 4.50 billion to Tk 5.00 billion to be set up. Furthermore, the sand of Turkey seacoast is comparatively rocky than that of ours. That is why the ship-breaking industry in Turkey is advantageous.  About 10 million metric tonnes of scrap ships are dismantled a year around the globe. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan import 75 per cent of the scrap vessels. Bangladesh is currently dismantling 2.5 million to 3.0 million tonnes of imported scrap vessels per year which is over 25 per cent of the total ships dismantled in the world. The annul turnover of the sector in Bangladesh is Tk 50.00 billion while the sector deposits Tk 10.00 billion a year to the national exchequer.
The BSBA, for the first time in the country, has established a 250-bed hospital for the workers engaged in the ship-breaking yards and their families. The hospital was set up at Bhatiary of Sitakunda in the second week of this month. Members of the BSBA have financed the project. I should mention here that there is no central hospital for the workers of ship-breaking yards anywhere in the world. It is a benevolent act of the BSBA ship-breaking-yard owners who have done it as they want welfare of the workers and their families. A total of  25 physicians will regularly attend the hospital while four doctors will be attending the emergency department. All modern machinery have been provided for the patients, including an ambulance and four modern operation theatres. Special arrangements are there for the children and women.
The writer is MD of PHP Ship Breaking Yard and EC Member (foreign affairs) of BSBA