Yawning gap between words and reality
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Nerun Yakub
A week after the blast, at one of the ship-breaking yards at Sitakunda, killed and maimed scores of workers, the Prime Minister was reported to have said that her government was soon 'going to formulate a policy', to save both the environment and human lives in the ship-breaking sector. It came in the course of the PM's inaugural address at the 51st Convention of the Institution of Engineers in Chittagong last Saturday, and for that very reason, may seem to be just a thought in passing. But every right-minded citizen would hope Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is dead serious. Hundreds have died in this industry over the past two decades. Just last Wednesday another accident on a different site left at least five injured when a huge iron plate slipped. Such hazards are too common, and so is loss of life and limb in this job.
This dirty business of dismantling condemned vessels no doubt generates thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Bangladesh, supplies almost all the steel needed and yields a significant amount of revenue for the government. But the costs to the environment and the human beings directly involved, are by no means small, though most investors tend to dismiss this aspect, encouraged as they are by toothless 'authorities' that can cite rules, regulations and laws but are clearly unable, or unwilling, to enforce compliance. 'Clearance certificates' are usually 'managed' and the do's and don'ts ignored with impunity. This yawning gap between words and reality continues at our peril. It must be bridged sooner rather than later, if we are to limit the damage and gradually restore the health of the coastal environment and ecology.
Professor Mohammad Maruf Hussain of the Marine Science Institute at Chittagong University, has been studying the effects of ship-breaking on the once pristine shores of Sitakunda, along which most of the yards have been set up over the past decades. His findings are alarming. As many as 21 species of fish and crustaceans have disappeared altogether, and 11 others are in a precarious position due to the toxic wastes dumped indiscriminately over the land and sea. The destruction of coastal forests to make way for the yards have also had an adverse effect on the fish resources . Two decades ago fishermen here could have protein on their plates while making a good living, but today more and more of them are forced to seek other means of income as the heavy concentration of pollutants have affected the breeding and spawning activities of many marine species, resulting in drastic depletion. Ninety-year old Haripada Das was quoted in a contemporary recently as saying that once upon a time the sea yielded so much Hilsa that even dogs and cats were tired of eating it!
Today the soil and water in the environs of the shipyards are poisoned by a dozen different harmful substances, heavy metals, chemicals and oil, which are so long-lasting that many countries, Europe in the main, have given up the ship-breaking business. Even India today is wary of importing the most polluting ones but in Bangladesh ship-breakers have been going ahead aggressively, lining up to buy a hefty share of the 1172 toxic vessels that European countries have earmarked for decommissioning soon. In those countries they would have to pay through their noses to dismantle their old vessels. Instead, countries like Bangladesh are paying the rich to get the ships off their hands!
Some 40-50 thousand trees have already been cut down in phases to clear about 125 acres of fresh land along the embankment in Sonaichari-Kumira to set up new yards. And a record number of no-objection certificates (165) have reportedly been issued (up to October 2009) by the relevant authorities. One can visualize what that can mean for the Bay front of the target area if the recycling is carried on in the same callous manner. Consider that the paint on the steel body of a single ship could alone yield tons of stuff like lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, asbestos, and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs); the vessels could come with thousands of litres of residual oil, lubricants, grease and various other noxious contaminants, regardless of what the Basel Convention says ---- that it is the responsibility of the exporting countries to render hazardous wastes reasonably safe before dispatching them to be recycled.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA), along with other citizen's groups, have long been trying to get the government to improve the industry's environmental standards as well as the working conditions of the largely unlettered labourers, from all corners of Bangladesh, slogging away at barely a dollar a day. A rough survey some years ago found that some 11 per cent of the workers were under 18 and 41 per cent were between 18 to 22 years old. There is virtually nothing to protect their basic rights as unskilled labour. It is not yet recognized officially as an 'industry' so the 1965 Factory Act does not apply ! And even the 2006 Labour Law, which spells out legal provisions for workers, is mostly ignored. As a consequence, it is a nightmare situation, with no formal appointments or arrangements for workers' minimum needs, such as safe drinking water, food, toilet, living conditions. They toil amid blinding smoke and dust, suffocating fumes and burning heat, a virtual hell on earth, as one witness reported some years ago. Workers rip apart the dumped vessels ----- from ocean liners to dirty freighters or monstrous tankers, weighing from a few thousand tons to as much as 60- 70 thousand, and costing millions of dollars to the importer ----- armed with just a blowtorch and other rudimentary tools.
In Bangladesh the ship-breaking industry began by accident when a foreign ship got grounded by a storm in the mid-sixties. It could not be moved and had to be taken apart bolt by bolt, to be melted down and fashioned into steel rods. Today 36 shipyards had come up along the beach in Sitakunda alone and most of them allegedly do not have environmental clearance. The Directorate of Environment is said to have apprised the government about the matter and things are said to be moving in the right direction. A writ filed by BELA last year had also brought about a positive response from the High Court which ruled (17 March 2009) that the ship-breaking industry must be subjected to strict regulations: every ship destined for Bangladesh must be thoroughly detoxified before being brought in; environmental clearance should be mandatory; the number and kind of vessels entering the port must be monitored; assessment of the waste each ship carries; etc should be submitted to the supreme court every month. In 2002 the High Court had given another ruling that every worker in the ship-breaking industry be given the minimum health protection. Has any of this had an impact ? Not yet.
If the obligations ---- required of the ship-breakers way back in 1997 to get a clearance certificate ---- were met even halfway, it would have made some difference; some consolation to the promoters of 'good business practices' that these money makers have at least been trying to lessen the burden on the environment and the well-being of the workers. Heartless exploitation, unfortunately, continues to predominate, refusing to give any space to humane and environmentally sound practices. There must therefore be no let up in the campaign for good sense in this sector till all discrepancies between words and action are removed.
A week after the blast, at one of the ship-breaking yards at Sitakunda, killed and maimed scores of workers, the Prime Minister was reported to have said that her government was soon 'going to formulate a policy', to save both the environment and human lives in the ship-breaking sector. It came in the course of the PM's inaugural address at the 51st Convention of the Institution of Engineers in Chittagong last Saturday, and for that very reason, may seem to be just a thought in passing. But every right-minded citizen would hope Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is dead serious. Hundreds have died in this industry over the past two decades. Just last Wednesday another accident on a different site left at least five injured when a huge iron plate slipped. Such hazards are too common, and so is loss of life and limb in this job.
This dirty business of dismantling condemned vessels no doubt generates thousands of direct and indirect jobs in Bangladesh, supplies almost all the steel needed and yields a significant amount of revenue for the government. But the costs to the environment and the human beings directly involved, are by no means small, though most investors tend to dismiss this aspect, encouraged as they are by toothless 'authorities' that can cite rules, regulations and laws but are clearly unable, or unwilling, to enforce compliance. 'Clearance certificates' are usually 'managed' and the do's and don'ts ignored with impunity. This yawning gap between words and reality continues at our peril. It must be bridged sooner rather than later, if we are to limit the damage and gradually restore the health of the coastal environment and ecology.
Professor Mohammad Maruf Hussain of the Marine Science Institute at Chittagong University, has been studying the effects of ship-breaking on the once pristine shores of Sitakunda, along which most of the yards have been set up over the past decades. His findings are alarming. As many as 21 species of fish and crustaceans have disappeared altogether, and 11 others are in a precarious position due to the toxic wastes dumped indiscriminately over the land and sea. The destruction of coastal forests to make way for the yards have also had an adverse effect on the fish resources . Two decades ago fishermen here could have protein on their plates while making a good living, but today more and more of them are forced to seek other means of income as the heavy concentration of pollutants have affected the breeding and spawning activities of many marine species, resulting in drastic depletion. Ninety-year old Haripada Das was quoted in a contemporary recently as saying that once upon a time the sea yielded so much Hilsa that even dogs and cats were tired of eating it!
Today the soil and water in the environs of the shipyards are poisoned by a dozen different harmful substances, heavy metals, chemicals and oil, which are so long-lasting that many countries, Europe in the main, have given up the ship-breaking business. Even India today is wary of importing the most polluting ones but in Bangladesh ship-breakers have been going ahead aggressively, lining up to buy a hefty share of the 1172 toxic vessels that European countries have earmarked for decommissioning soon. In those countries they would have to pay through their noses to dismantle their old vessels. Instead, countries like Bangladesh are paying the rich to get the ships off their hands!
Some 40-50 thousand trees have already been cut down in phases to clear about 125 acres of fresh land along the embankment in Sonaichari-Kumira to set up new yards. And a record number of no-objection certificates (165) have reportedly been issued (up to October 2009) by the relevant authorities. One can visualize what that can mean for the Bay front of the target area if the recycling is carried on in the same callous manner. Consider that the paint on the steel body of a single ship could alone yield tons of stuff like lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, asbestos, and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs); the vessels could come with thousands of litres of residual oil, lubricants, grease and various other noxious contaminants, regardless of what the Basel Convention says ---- that it is the responsibility of the exporting countries to render hazardous wastes reasonably safe before dispatching them to be recycled.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (BELA), along with other citizen's groups, have long been trying to get the government to improve the industry's environmental standards as well as the working conditions of the largely unlettered labourers, from all corners of Bangladesh, slogging away at barely a dollar a day. A rough survey some years ago found that some 11 per cent of the workers were under 18 and 41 per cent were between 18 to 22 years old. There is virtually nothing to protect their basic rights as unskilled labour. It is not yet recognized officially as an 'industry' so the 1965 Factory Act does not apply ! And even the 2006 Labour Law, which spells out legal provisions for workers, is mostly ignored. As a consequence, it is a nightmare situation, with no formal appointments or arrangements for workers' minimum needs, such as safe drinking water, food, toilet, living conditions. They toil amid blinding smoke and dust, suffocating fumes and burning heat, a virtual hell on earth, as one witness reported some years ago. Workers rip apart the dumped vessels ----- from ocean liners to dirty freighters or monstrous tankers, weighing from a few thousand tons to as much as 60- 70 thousand, and costing millions of dollars to the importer ----- armed with just a blowtorch and other rudimentary tools.
In Bangladesh the ship-breaking industry began by accident when a foreign ship got grounded by a storm in the mid-sixties. It could not be moved and had to be taken apart bolt by bolt, to be melted down and fashioned into steel rods. Today 36 shipyards had come up along the beach in Sitakunda alone and most of them allegedly do not have environmental clearance. The Directorate of Environment is said to have apprised the government about the matter and things are said to be moving in the right direction. A writ filed by BELA last year had also brought about a positive response from the High Court which ruled (17 March 2009) that the ship-breaking industry must be subjected to strict regulations: every ship destined for Bangladesh must be thoroughly detoxified before being brought in; environmental clearance should be mandatory; the number and kind of vessels entering the port must be monitored; assessment of the waste each ship carries; etc should be submitted to the supreme court every month. In 2002 the High Court had given another ruling that every worker in the ship-breaking industry be given the minimum health protection. Has any of this had an impact ? Not yet.
If the obligations ---- required of the ship-breakers way back in 1997 to get a clearance certificate ---- were met even halfway, it would have made some difference; some consolation to the promoters of 'good business practices' that these money makers have at least been trying to lessen the burden on the environment and the well-being of the workers. Heartless exploitation, unfortunately, continues to predominate, refusing to give any space to humane and environmentally sound practices. There must therefore be no let up in the campaign for good sense in this sector till all discrepancies between words and action are removed.