Tough law should guide ship breaking industry
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Shahiduzzaman Khan
Incidents of fresh deaths were reported from the ship breaking yards in Chittagong early this week. Four more precious lives were lost this time taking the tally to 22 in a span of nine months. In eleven accidents in the yards reported so far, scores were injured and many more fell sick due to inhalation of poisonous gas.
In spite of shutdown ordered by the High Court, more hazardous ship-breaking yards are registering a phenomenal growth in Chittagong, increasing the threat to life and environment of the surrounding areas. Putting the court order in legal tangles, the ship-breaking yard owners are now continuing their activities. Of late, they have have been encouraged by the recent International Maritime Organisation (IMO) announcement to phase out over 2,000 old single-hull oil tankers owned by the European Union (EU) countries by 2012. These tankers are now on sale as scrap ships. Local businessmen are on the run to buy these ships.
Although more yards are being set up, the government is yet to take any move to ensure workers' safety or protect the environment. It rather let local influential people to build new ship-breaking yards destroying the "para forest". The Department of Environment (DoE) reported that the number of the yards shot up a 2008 to 70 which was only 36 in 2008. But none of the yard owners has obtained environmental clearance certificate since the court's directive, although some of them have applied for it without attaching sufficient documents.
Almost all the country's ship-breaking yards are thus reportedly flouting the law, endangering the labourers' lives and degrading the environment. Death of ill-fated workers due to inhalation of poisonous gas, fire and falling metal scrap is common in such yards. The Labour Law of 2006 is being blatantly violated in the yards. The labourers work without any safety gear and handle toxic substances with their bare hands. They neither have any job contract nor health insurance.
It is true that ship-breaking helps the country's economy, yet at the same time, needless and callous endangering of the labourers' lives and pollution of the environment cannot be allowed. Industries Minister Dilip Barua recently asked the ship breakers to beach scrap ships after getting them fully free of gas and other hazards. He said ship breaking is a thriving sector which can be termed a 'gold mine' and that nobody should undermine its potentials. The government has attached much importance to building this sector as an industry. For this reason the authorities have formulated a draft guideline to regulate the ship breaking industry. The guideline, protecting the interests of the workers as well as owners of ship breaking industry, will be finalised very soon, the industries minister said.
Sitakundu in Chittagong is now the one of the world's largest ship-breaking destinations as Bangladeshi importers have beaten their competitors in India and Pakistan to buy the highest number of scrap vessels sold in the international market. The country's ship-breakers offer at least 20-25 per cent more price than their competitors in India and Pakistan, making the Bangladesh the preferred choice for the 'burial ground' of a large and medium sized ships. The country cuts ships that generate 12,000-20,000 tonnes of scarps per vessel, Indians and Pakistanis only target the small vessels that can generate on 4000-5000 tonnes per vessel. According to reports, the country's importers are now financially better off than many of their competitors in India, Pakistan and Turkey, enabling them to scour the world for any old ships up for sale anytime. China, a large player in ship breaking industry, has now stopped buying scrap vessels because it already built up a large stock of old vessels.
The old ships are the main source of steel construction in the country. The ships are dismantled in huge slabs of steel and then these are melted in the re-rolling mills to become 40-grade mild steel (MS) rod. Some 80 per cent of the country's annual rod demand is met from scrap ships. The ship breaking business grew tremendously in recent times as the demand for the steel rose sharply amid recovery in the construction industry.
Apart from the 30,000 or so workers directly engaged in the industry, many others are employed in second-hand furniture and electrical equipment off the scrapped ships. Most of all, the steel from the broken ships is the raw material recycled by the re-rolling mills. The government earns over Tk 8.0 billion in revenue from ship breaking.
What is urgently needed from the ship breakers is that they must build up some institutes to formalise the training and recruitment of workers. A summary training can be provided to workers with audio-video etc. And the core element in the training should be safety. Workers should be made permanent with the basic orientation, as training is meaningless for workers recruited on daily basis. The current practice of picking up workers from the street on contingency basis should go. The labour laws of the country needs to be applied in the industry.
There is no denying that ship breaking is a very profitable venture. The yard owners should, therefore, spend some additional money for workers safety, training and welfare under their own institutional care. And there is no need to scrap as much as one hundred poisonous ships per year. By an elimination process only the least hazardous ships should be allowed to enter the country. If such process is taken up, the number of workers will automatically come down. If yards are fewer, the operation will go on through the year and regular workers will not face any temporary joblessness. Any way, a tough but an environment-friendly policy needs to be framed to give the ship breaking industry a better look.
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com
Incidents of fresh deaths were reported from the ship breaking yards in Chittagong early this week. Four more precious lives were lost this time taking the tally to 22 in a span of nine months. In eleven accidents in the yards reported so far, scores were injured and many more fell sick due to inhalation of poisonous gas.
In spite of shutdown ordered by the High Court, more hazardous ship-breaking yards are registering a phenomenal growth in Chittagong, increasing the threat to life and environment of the surrounding areas. Putting the court order in legal tangles, the ship-breaking yard owners are now continuing their activities. Of late, they have have been encouraged by the recent International Maritime Organisation (IMO) announcement to phase out over 2,000 old single-hull oil tankers owned by the European Union (EU) countries by 2012. These tankers are now on sale as scrap ships. Local businessmen are on the run to buy these ships.
Although more yards are being set up, the government is yet to take any move to ensure workers' safety or protect the environment. It rather let local influential people to build new ship-breaking yards destroying the "para forest". The Department of Environment (DoE) reported that the number of the yards shot up a 2008 to 70 which was only 36 in 2008. But none of the yard owners has obtained environmental clearance certificate since the court's directive, although some of them have applied for it without attaching sufficient documents.
Almost all the country's ship-breaking yards are thus reportedly flouting the law, endangering the labourers' lives and degrading the environment. Death of ill-fated workers due to inhalation of poisonous gas, fire and falling metal scrap is common in such yards. The Labour Law of 2006 is being blatantly violated in the yards. The labourers work without any safety gear and handle toxic substances with their bare hands. They neither have any job contract nor health insurance.
It is true that ship-breaking helps the country's economy, yet at the same time, needless and callous endangering of the labourers' lives and pollution of the environment cannot be allowed. Industries Minister Dilip Barua recently asked the ship breakers to beach scrap ships after getting them fully free of gas and other hazards. He said ship breaking is a thriving sector which can be termed a 'gold mine' and that nobody should undermine its potentials. The government has attached much importance to building this sector as an industry. For this reason the authorities have formulated a draft guideline to regulate the ship breaking industry. The guideline, protecting the interests of the workers as well as owners of ship breaking industry, will be finalised very soon, the industries minister said.
Sitakundu in Chittagong is now the one of the world's largest ship-breaking destinations as Bangladeshi importers have beaten their competitors in India and Pakistan to buy the highest number of scrap vessels sold in the international market. The country's ship-breakers offer at least 20-25 per cent more price than their competitors in India and Pakistan, making the Bangladesh the preferred choice for the 'burial ground' of a large and medium sized ships. The country cuts ships that generate 12,000-20,000 tonnes of scarps per vessel, Indians and Pakistanis only target the small vessels that can generate on 4000-5000 tonnes per vessel. According to reports, the country's importers are now financially better off than many of their competitors in India, Pakistan and Turkey, enabling them to scour the world for any old ships up for sale anytime. China, a large player in ship breaking industry, has now stopped buying scrap vessels because it already built up a large stock of old vessels.
The old ships are the main source of steel construction in the country. The ships are dismantled in huge slabs of steel and then these are melted in the re-rolling mills to become 40-grade mild steel (MS) rod. Some 80 per cent of the country's annual rod demand is met from scrap ships. The ship breaking business grew tremendously in recent times as the demand for the steel rose sharply amid recovery in the construction industry.
Apart from the 30,000 or so workers directly engaged in the industry, many others are employed in second-hand furniture and electrical equipment off the scrapped ships. Most of all, the steel from the broken ships is the raw material recycled by the re-rolling mills. The government earns over Tk 8.0 billion in revenue from ship breaking.
What is urgently needed from the ship breakers is that they must build up some institutes to formalise the training and recruitment of workers. A summary training can be provided to workers with audio-video etc. And the core element in the training should be safety. Workers should be made permanent with the basic orientation, as training is meaningless for workers recruited on daily basis. The current practice of picking up workers from the street on contingency basis should go. The labour laws of the country needs to be applied in the industry.
There is no denying that ship breaking is a very profitable venture. The yard owners should, therefore, spend some additional money for workers safety, training and welfare under their own institutional care. And there is no need to scrap as much as one hundred poisonous ships per year. By an elimination process only the least hazardous ships should be allowed to enter the country. If such process is taken up, the number of workers will automatically come down. If yards are fewer, the operation will go on through the year and regular workers will not face any temporary joblessness. Any way, a tough but an environment-friendly policy needs to be framed to give the ship breaking industry a better look.
szkhan@thefinancialexpress-bd.com