Most ships have a lifespan of a few decades before their repair becomes uneconomical and their facilities obsolete. Ship breaking allows materials from antiquated ships, especially steel and iron, to be recycled. In Bangladesh, ship breaking is an economically stimulating business. Not only is it lucrative, it employs thousands and is responsible for supplying the nation with nearly 60% of its steel, making it essential for the further development of Bangladeshi infrastructure (Ethirajan). The Chittagong coast, the site of the world’s largest ship breaking industry, is filled with 100’s of ship carcasses, making Bangladesh the top ship recycling nation with a 84.8 million metric ton carrying capacity (Gwin). Despite the fact that the Bangladeshi ship breaking industry is beneficial fiscally, it causes detrimental effects on the coastal environment as well as the health of it's industry workers.
Prior to 1965, the Bangladeshi coast consisted of pristine beaches, uncontaminated by asbestos and oil. It wasn’t until a large seasonal storm left a cargo ship beached that the first instance of ship breaking in Bangladesh occurred. The locals began tearing apart the ship to sell for scraps while businessmen took note of industry potential. Companies like PHP (peace happiness, prosperity) pay millions for the ships that their workers erode. Western ship owners are able to sell their obsolete ships to these businessmen rather than pay to have their ships recycled in developed nations with strict regulations on ship breaking practices. It makes economic sense for the ship owners to sell rather than pay for their ships to be recycled in nations where there are rigid environmental laws and labor unions.
Not only is there a demand by Western shipowners for the services provided by this industry, there is also an interior demand coming from the construction sector of Bangladesh. Improving infrastructure is now a high priority which has caused an increase in demand for steel and a proportional demand for the goods and services provided by the ship breaking industry. Due to the fact that Bangladesh has no iron ore mines, there is no alternative to the cheap source of iron the ship breaking provides (Schorn). Ultimately, iron is desperately needed to tackle the chronic inadequacy of Bangladeshi infrastructure and ship breaking feeds the demand.
One facet of the industry that has received copious amount of criticism are the workers rights violations which includes child labour, low commission and unsafe working and living conditions. While often being paid little more than a dollar a day, these men are subject to arduous tasks (Schorn). They dissect the ships by hand, using nothing more sophisticated than a blow torch (Schorn). After cutting sheets of metal off the ship carcass by hand, they carry the metal plates, each weighing more than a ton, from the shoreline to the transportations trucks that await (Schorn). Living off of a mere $150 a month, these men are housed in barracks that do not have basic amenities such a beds (Ethirajan). Instead, they sleep on steel plates they tear off from the ships (Schorn CBS). Not only is the labor intense and the living situations inadequate, but injury while working is so common that there is a term used by the locals to describe the scars left by the wounds: Chittagong tattoos. These casualties are easy to find on the beach, Mohammed Murad “worked in ship-breaking for 10 years until a 20-ton slab of metal fell onto his leg” (Rivers). While at first his employer refused to pay for the loss of his leg, with help from activists he was able to receive compensation. In addition to the improper care of the workers, there is yet another aspect of the industry that has received criticism from activists world wide: child labor. There have been many instances of employees who start working at a mere 12 years old (Schorn). Company owners understand this and even defend the children’s right to work stating that if they do not work on the beach they will simply find work elsewhere.
On April 3, 2014, four workers were killed and three others injured when a gas cylinder exploded at a ship-breaking yard in Sitakunda of Chittagong when the victims were dismantling a scrap ship. Over the last two years the death toll at ship-breaking yards in Chittagong has rose to 44. This is just one example of the many similar stories that occur on these beaches every year. Since February 2012, at least 35 accidents have taken place, leaving dozens of ship-breaking workers wounded (Roy). At one time, Chittagong was a tourist attraction in which visitors could watch as the ships were taken apart, but now tourists are no longer allowed on the beach due to the poor safety record. Although there have been steps taken to keep outsiders safe there has been a lack of initiative taken to keep the workers safe as well. Syeda Rizwana Hasan, an eco-pioneer, labor rights campaigner, and national lawyer states, "As far as we know, [company owners] haven't done any improvement in the working conditions"(Ethirajan). Although activists are convinced otherwise, businessmen state that "over the years, we have improved safety standards for our workers. We are also conscious of the environment," says Hefazutur Rahman, President of the Bangladesh Ship Breaking Association(Ethirajan). Even though there may have been positive changes for the worker’s situation, the risks associated with the job still remain high.
Due to the lack of consideration for the environment and human health, activists have begun speaking out against the tragedies that unethical ship breaking causes. Over the past several years there has been international outrage and even some legal movement towards a cleaner industry. Hasan states that, "the ship-breaking industry is not doing any good for our country. The environmental damage to the area has been immense... There is a huge amount of waste oil and water that are eventually released into our coastal environments. In the process our soil gets contaminated, the fishery gets contaminated, the air gets polluted. And we are all inhaling it without knowing the effect of it" (Ethirajan). Although Ship breaking is in essence a large scale recycling operation, due to unethical waste disposal toxins, oil and sludge are polluting the Chittagong beaches and the surrounding seas. An estimated 97% of ship is recycled, yet the other 3 percent, the waste that can not be converted, which includes asbestos, arsenic and mercury is left on the beaches to foul and pollute the environment (Schorn).
In order to combat the substandard environmental policies in Bangladeshi shipyards, activists propose that harmful wastes from the ship should be disposed of while in Western countries where there are adequate facilities. Rizwana Hasan, the executive director of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) states that, “All these ships contain very hazardous materials like asbestos, PCBs, and they are in-built in the system, so in a country like Bangladesh we do not have technologies to deal with this sort of hazardous substance," (Rivers). Hasan “realizes [the industry’s] importance as a source of employment, money and its potential as a good recycling initiative... But she is determined that it should operate responsibly and within the law”( Rivers). In 2009 Bangladesh's Supreme Court ruled that ships entering the country for decommissioning must be pre- cleaned in accordance with the Basel Convention which is an international treaty designed to minimize the amount of harmful wastes brought to undeveloped from developed countries (Rivers). This treaty states that no country will allow the shipment of hazardous materials if it is suspect whether or not the underdeveloped countries has the facilities to treat the waste. Instead, the waste must be properly disposed of while in the original country (Rivers). Due to various environmental and legal campaigns as well as the Basel Convention ruling, ship breaking in Bangladesh was stunted significantly. In 2010 only 19 ships were broken, but this deceleration of the industry did not last (Rivers). Within the next year, courts lifted the ban on the import of ships until the government formulated detailed guidelines for the ship-breaking sector. Due to this lift, business has picked up pace again, with 150 ships dismantled in 2011 and officials say 143 ships have already been broken in the first six months of 2012 (Rivers). According to Rizwana, one issue with treaties such as the Basel Convention is that they are not always strictly maintained. In countries like Bangladesh the law is often not applied to the ships, but simply to the cargo. Additionally, Rizwana states that ships are frequently “re-registered in ‘flag of convenience’ countries” before being dispatched to Bangladesh. By using ‘flag of convenience’ countries, ship owners are able to avoid the regulations upheld by the ship’s country of origin (Rivers). Fewer regulations and checks for hazardous waste allows contaminated ships to still gain entry into Bangladesh despite the best efforts set by international treaties.
Ultimately, the ship breaking industry in Bangladesh is a complicated issue that affects the country politically, socially, environmentally as well as economically. Bangladesh as a nation needs ship breaking in order to have a cheap and stable source of iron and steel in order to stabilize the domestic market, develop infrastructure and grow economically. Additionally, although there has been movement towards a safer industry environmentally, the solutions have yet to provide a lasting effect due to political tension. Environmentalism, although essential is fiscally impractical to undeveloped nations like Bangladesh due to the fact that they lack the facilities and money. Getting rid of the industry as a whole would disrupt the economy greatly and displace close to 200,000 workers in a country where work is already difficult to find due to the dense population. In conclusion, although the industry is flawed, it is necessary and in order to combat the issues there must be intelligent, practical laws put into place in order to provide proper care for the industry workers and preserve the coastal environment.
