Safety at shipbreaking yards remains elusive
Three workers died while three others suffered injuries upon inhaling toxic gas at a shipbreaking yard in Chattogram's Sitakunda upazila on July 31. The police inform us that all six workers were involved in cutting the pipe in the engine room and breathed in toxic gas when it spurted from the pipe. None of the workers was wearing an oxygen mask. This is an issue that has been covered extensively by this paper but nothing appears to move the management of the shipbreaking yards to do anything about ensuring safety gear for its workers.
We are informed that the explosives department had issued a letter to the shipbreaking yard two weeks ago asking it not to cut the pump in engine rooms without cleaning the ship properly. Unfortunately, shipyards seldom bother with these instructions because technically, they fall under the purview of the ministry of industry and yard managements know that the explosives department does not have any executive power to enforce its directives on them.
Our question is this: where is the industries ministry's supervision in all this? The standing excuse for not providing necessary gear to workers is that the gear is cumbersome and slows down work. So, are we to assume that it is perfectly acceptable to have people die on the job rather than have a slower pace of work? The department of explosives is going to conduct an investigation and then what? How many such investigations have taken place after countless accidents? And yet the yards continue to operate where workers are sent to these death traps without proper gear.
Human life is not cheap. Workers have a right to proper safety gear when involved in hazardous work and we need more than lip service from authorities when they say they are investigating an incident. Heavy penalties and compensations must be awarded by erring companies should they fail to meet safety standards and if rules need to be changed to make that happen, then that must be done.
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