Shipyard casualties again!
The accident that occurred at a ship-breaking yard at Sitakunda on Tuesday last took a toll of 4 precious lives. As many as 30 workers died and 16 were maimed in last 21 months in 16 ship-breaking yards. Besides, many others were injured whose number remains unrecorded.
We watch with trepidation that fatal explosions happen in the industry at regular intervals as the authorities concerned did not comply with the High Court orders and let the owners operate without equipping their workers with necessary safety measures.
Flouting of rules has become a general practice these days. As per reports, the blast at Sitakunda took place during the scrapping of a tanker that entered the country violating the HC directives on toxin free entry in the first place.
In addition to defying High Court directives against allowing any ship into Bangladesh and equipping the workers with safety measures, there are other breaches of law. According to existing law, it is mandatory for all ship-breaking yards to have environmental clearance certificate, although majority of the 100 ship-breaking yards are operating without proper clearance from the concerned department. Almost all of the yards scrap vessels on open beach and dismantle them manually exposing the man and the environment to extreme health and environment hazard.
The entire process of the trade demands regular monitoring to ensure safety of lives and environment. The process involves acquiring of ships or tankers and putting them on for scrapping in compliance with all the internationally prescribed adequate safety standards. This is particularly imperative on our part because Bangladesh has been vulnerable to dumping of old ships by the owners. As guardian, the government ought to be the first party to ensure that all the ship-breaking yards are complying with the requirements as prescribed by the law not only to ensure safety of the workers but also to protect the environment.
That so many unauthorised yards have been operational by flouting laws is an indicator of the government's
indulgence at some point which it must now shun without much ado.
Let us have the yards but have them only subject to maintenance of international standards, and in a manner that some other countries are operating with regular precaution in place.
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