Ship breaking yards

Photo: Wahid Adnan / DriknewsMd. Rana Abbas, Student, Dept. of Geography & Environmental Studies, University of Chittagong

A large ship-breaking industry that has grown in an unplanned way in Chittagong is now an environmental concern.

More than 50 ship-breaking yards, situated along 20 miles stretch of the sea coast from Sitakunda to Fouzderhat near the port city, are increasingly turning into death traps for the manual scrap workers engaged in the sprawling yards. In the absence of adequate and modern safety measures thousands of these poor scrap workers are exposed to fatal and life-threatening accidents and gas explosions that often hit media headlines.

About 30,000 scrap labourers are employed in ship-breaking yards while around 20 lakh people are involved in the sector directly or indirectly. And at least 7,000 workers in the industry are below the age of 18. Most of the ship-breaking yards in Chittagong are working under hazardous conditions that lead to frequent accidents including explosion of gas cylinders, oil tankers during ship scrapping.

Though ship-breaking has earned a good reputation for being a profitable industry in developing countries like Bangladesh, there are a number of environmental and health hazards.

Ship scrapping activities pollute the seawater environment in the coastal area of Fouzderhat to Kumira of Chittagong. As a result, toxic concentration of ammonia, marine organisms found in seawater had an increase in PH levels. Extensive human and mechanical activities accelerate the rate and amount of seashore erosion and results in higher turbidity of seawater. Critical concentration of DO and higher BOD were found with an abundance of floatable materials (grease balls and oil films) in the seawater.

The authorities must enforce the labour and environmental laws for ship- breaking yards.