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World scrambles to clean up global ship breaking

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Pollution, accidents and asbestos among problems

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Bangladesh scrap trade braces for bonanza as ships age

By Md. Tahmid Zami

SITAKUNDA, Bangladesh, Feb 19 (Thomson Reuters

Foundation) - O n the southwest coast of Bangladesh, workers

armed with gas torches, laser cutters and winches break apart

the carcasses of the giant, old ships that are grounded on their

sandy beach.

Thirty ship-breaking yards and thousands of scrap workshops

are dotted along 15 km of the coastline of Sitakunda, recycling

about 38% of the world's dead ships and supplying steel scraps

for Bangladesh's thriving manufacturing industry.

"Cutting ships is one of the riskiest jobs on earth," said

Jamal Uddin, 40, who works as a senior cutter in his local yard.

Over the last two decades, Uddin has seen many of his fellow

workers in nearby yards suffer major burns and break limbs while

dismantling steel vessels that are sent to Bangladesh from rich,

ship-owning nations.

With many old ships now nearing their end of life, the

industry is bracing for a big, new economic shot in the arm.

In the coming decade, about 15,000 ships - or one in eight

of the entire global fleet - will come in for recycling: twice

the amount of the past decade, according to a new report by the

NGO Climate Group and consulting firm PWC.

These older ships are heavy emitters, spewing out pollutants

and planet-heating emissions, which have hastened the industry's

efforts to retire them, said Anand Hiremath, chief

sustainability officer at GMS, which buys old ships and resells

them to South Asian ship breakers.

EMISSIONS

Were it a country, the global fleet would have the dubious

honour of being the world's No. 6 emitter of planet-warming

carbon dioxide.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has pledged to

cut emissions by half by the year 2030, and turn it into a net

zero emissions industry by 2050.

New global regulations aim to ensure that the dismantling of

ships grows more safe and environmentally friendly as part of an

industry-wide push to a more sustainable model.

But workers who cut and recycle ships said that the reform

agenda does not promise them decent jobs or better pay.

"After a day's back-breaking work, we hardly get the wages

to cover our doctors' costs or our kids' school fees," said

Uddin, who chose not to name his employer, fearing repercussion.

Most of the coming surge will be handled by yards in the

Sitakunda region of Bangladesh or Alang in India's Gujarat,

which together account for about 70% of global ship breaking.

Worker deaths are common, as is environmental harm with

toxic chemicals seeping into the beach and water, harming marine

life.

When workers use high-temperature torches to gouge a ship's

panels, accidents often happen, while exposure to hazardous

substances such as asbestos risks long-term health impacts.

A Sitakunda shipyard fire killed seven workers in September.

Since 2009, 470 workers have been killed in South Asia's

more than 500 registered ship-breaking yards, according to the

NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a coalition of environmental and

labour rights groups headquartered in Brussels.

The industry employs at least 30,000 people - most of them

low-paid, causal workers - in Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.

"The recent accident showed once again that we still have to

go a long way to ensure a safe workplace for ship-breaking

workers," said Fazlul Kabir Mintu of the Bangladesh Institute of

Labour Studies (BILS), which works with yard owners and ship

breakers to make their workplaces safer.

In June, the IMO is bringing in new regulations, known as

the Hong Kong convention, to address the risks that workers face

and to govern how hazardous substances are managed.

The change will mean owners must document any hazardous

substances in a ship before it goes for recycling.

MAKING JOBS DECENT

Beyond increased safety, though, workers want better pay and

benefits, said Mohammad Ali of the Bangladesh Metalworkers'

Federation (BMF) who set up the country's first shipyard trade

union.

Workers in Sitakunda's yards usually make less than $5 for a

precarious, eight-hour day. Most also work on a temporary basis

without ID cards and get no paid leave, Ali said.

So many of them must work additional hours to earn enough -

putting them at still higher risk of accidents, he added.

When workers are killed in a workplace accident, they

receive about 700,000 Taka ($5,740) in compensation.

That covers less than two years of an average household's

spending and does not include a pension.

Zahidul Haque, who is in his 70s, lost his son Abdur Rashid

- a junior cutter when fire broke out in Pakiza Ship Yard about

a decade ago.

"We received some compensation which was just 100,000 Taka

($820) back then - but with our sole earning member gone, we

have no one to look after us," he said.

Upgrading safety, waste management and labour rights require

buy-in from not only yard owners but also their governments,

said Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, whose HR Ship Management firm

helps the yards get regulation-ready.

Whereas Bangladesh is lagging in its efforts to clean up the

industry, Indian yard owners have benefited from government

support as well as foreign funding, he said.

But rich companies - which own most of the ships - are also

being urged to share some of the heavy transition costs.

"The world's rich countries benefit from international

shipping - and they need to care and act on how the ships are

recycled and what happens to the workers," said Ali from BMF.

(Reporting by Md. Tahmid Zami; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths and

Jack Graham. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable

arm of Thomson Reuters. Visit https://www.context.news/)