Body formed to probe scrap vessel
The Department of Environment (DoE) yesterday formed a seven-member committee to detect if MT Producer, an imported scrap vessel now at a shipbreaking yard in Chittagong, contains any contaminated residues.
The committee, formed following an order of the director general of the DoE, was asked to submit a report in three working days, says a press release.
Ms Janata Steel Corporation imported the vessel for breaking at a shipbreaking yard in Sitakunda.
The members of the investigation committee headed by Masud Karim, director, DoE, Chittagong region include two experts from the Nuclear Energy Commission, an explosives expert, a professor of chemical engineering at BUET and a maritime expert (captain rank) from the Marine Academy.
The DoE has already imposed an injunction on any sort of change in the ship until the probe is completed.
According to Platform on Shipbreaking, a Brussels-based NGO, the Maersk-owned floating oil production and storage tanker, North Sea Producer, left the UK in May and was directly towed to Bangladesh. It arrived in the country on August 14.
The ship is currently being torn apart on a tidal beach, sadly known for human rights abuses and environmental pollution caused by improper shipbreaking.
The tanker's export from the UK for demolition in Bangladesh was illegal under the European Waste Shipment Regulation. The NGO calls on the UK government to hold the Maersk-owned North Sea Production Company responsible for illegal trafficking in hazardous waste.
Having operated in the North Sea as an FPSO, the vessel is likely to contain large amounts of residues that are contaminated by NORM and sulphur in addition to the various other hazardous materials in its structure and tanks, claims Platform on Shipbreaking.
It also cautions that Bangladesh shipbreaking yards are not equipped with any infrastructure that could safely remove and dispose of such toxic wastes.
Comments