No policy yet on ship breaking

Ship breaking yard workers are at high risk of fatal accidents. PHOTO: Zobaer Hossain Sikder

Besides, absence of specific rules has created a scope for violation of human rights and massive environment pollution in the coastal area to benefit only a vested syndicate, sources said.

Experts emphasised a collective effort by the government and non-government organisations as well as local pressure groups to formulate a policy to make the ship breaking an industry.

Some 20 ship breaking yards developed along some 8-km stretch of the coastal area from Sitakunda to Bhatiary, where some 70 companies were operative in the sector in the eighties, sources said.

Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a social development organisation based in the coastal area of Sitakunda, in its survey revealed that ship scrapping trade was immensely contributing to the country's economy, earning annual revenue of over Tk 900 crore. It met around 90 per cent of the demand for construction materials, including rod, steel and iron and created jobs for around 2.50 lakh people in the eighties, the survey report said.

The trade also helped some 20 forward and backward linkage industries to develop, centering it, the report added.

But the sector mysteriously remained as an untouched and unknown one, it said.

The number of operational companies in the ship breaking yards comes down to some 19 from 70. It can now hardly meet 55 per cent of the total demand of construction materials. Appointment of labourers with poor wages and vulnerable labour conditions featured in the ship breaking yards where access of general public was prohibited, YPSA sources said.

Poverty stricken people of northern districts, who comprised 75.85 per cent of the workforce, were deprived of labour facilities under an undeclared rule "no work no pay" in the yards, they said.

YPSA officials said due to lack of specific rules, human rights is seriously violated in ship breaking yards when accidents cause huge loss of life frequently.

Economist Professor Dr Moinul Islam of Chittagong University (CU) said contribution of ship breaking trade could be more than what was estimated in terms of annual revenue earning.

But, non-recognition and criminal activities by a vested quarter are ruining this sector, he added.

Md. Saiful Karim of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) said the absence of specific rules created scope for bringing ships in a hazardous state, obtaining certificates without survey and dismantling without making them gas or sludge-free properly.

The Convention on the Control of Trans-boundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, 1989 is also not being followed, he added.

Meanwhile, the participants at a roundtable titled, "Advocacy for a Public Policy to Ensure Human Rights in Ship Breaking Industry" on Wednesday emphasised a policy to free the sector from the clutches of vested syndicates.

Young Power in Social Action (YPSA) and the Bengali daily Bhorer Kagoj organised the roundtable in collaboration with Manusher Jonno at the Chittagong Stock Exchange conference hall.

The speakers said the sector has all the reasons to be recognised as an industry and run under the ministry of industry.

But under the clutches of a vested syndicate it can not get the recognition of an industry, they added.