Chittagong Ship breaking Yard is causing environmental imbalance

Wahid Adnan

Ship breaking is a type of recycling the old ships that pass their life span. This recycling is done by breaking up of ship for scrap steel. Most ships have lifespan of some decades before there is so wear that repairing of these ships becomes uneconomic. Ship breaking allows for materials from the ship, mainly steel that is used as raw materials of the steel re-rolling industry in Bangladesh. Some other countries use these scrap steel to build new vessels besides using as raw materials in steel re-rolling industries. Ship breaking industry took place in the port cities of countries such as United States and Great Britain until the end of 20th century. Today, most ship breaking yards are in some countries of Asia, principally Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, due to lower labour costs and less stringent environmental regulations dealing with the disposal of lead paint and other toxic substances. Bangladesh is dependent on ship-breaking for its domestic steel requirements. Scrap Ships provide about 80% of the country’s steel needs. Besides this around three million people are directly or indirectly employed in the industry, among them 40 percent of the work force comprise of child labor. Chittagong ship breaking yard is a highly polluted coastal belt of 20km. The working conditions are very dangerous. Health and safety regulations for the workers are very poor. Protective equipment is most times absent or inadequate. Dangerous vapors and fumes from burning materials can be inhaled, and dusty asbestos-laden areas are commonplace. Huge casualties occurs causing loss of lives every year. An alarming statistics shows such casualties left around 600 workers killed and another three thousand injured or disabled in the last 15 years. The casualties mainly result from oil or gas chamber blasts, flammable substances, fall from high places, manual carrying of heavy steel sheets etc. The labors reside in a most unhygienic condition, sleeping on the floors in-group and taking poor foods. The wages are also very poor as 80-100 Taka (1 Dollar = 70 Taka) per 8 hours of bone crushing labour. A laborer usually works for 12-14 hours a day and get 160-180 Taka in average. Despite these conditions, every year lots of people from all over Bangladesh, especially from the northern part of the country, come to this industry to manage their living.

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