The New Nation - Internet Edition

UNB, Dhaka

There is nothing new in casualties in ship-breaking yards under Sitakunda upazila of Chittagong, but things have taken an alarming turn in recent times and the blame goes to

lack of safety measures for the workers by their employers.

A total of seven ship-breaking workers were killed in such incidents in a row at different ship-breaking yards at Kadamrasul and Bhatiari in Sitakunda upazila in the last one week.

Three workers were killed in an explosion during the scrapping of an old ship at Pakiza Ship-breaking Yard on October 13 while another three Thursday as an iron plate of a ship crashed onto them at Baroaulia on October 7.

According to a study conducted by the Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), a total of 108 accidents in ship-breaking occurred in the last couple of years. At least 16 workers were killed while nearly 800 wounded this year alone.

The study reveals that one worker was killed on average every week while at least eight others were injured in the incidents occurred for lack of necessary safety measurers.

In another YPSA study, published on June in 2007, showed that around 1200 workers were killed in ship-breaking incidents over the last one decade.

Sources said nearly 100 ship-scraping yards are in operation along the Sitakunda coastline and nearly 100 to 130 outdated vessels are being scrapped in these yards every year.

Although scrapping obsolete ships is an emerging sector and major source of raw iron supplies to the steel re-rolling mills in the region, the human causalities in these ship-breaking yards are on the sharp rise because of scrapping ships in an unscientific way and for lack of minimum safety measures.

According to rights groups, the owners of these ship-breaking yards are least bothered about the rights of workers, healthy working environment, procuring modern equipment and ensuring measures to protect the environment because there is no national policy in this regard.

The ILO Convention says that every labourer or worker should be provided with security measurers while doing a risky job. Though breaking of obsolete ships has become an increasingly profitable business, the plight of the industry's workers has neither drawn the attention of the government's labour-welfare department nor the watchdog groups under the International Labour organisation (ILO) based in Geneva.

Jafar Alam, President of Ship Breaking Association, was not available over phone for his comment on the increasing casualties in the sector.

Talking to UNB, Abul Kalam, a ship scraping worker, said the workers have to pay a heavy price for their ignorance about the hazardous job. "The ship yard owners hardly provide safety gears like helmets, eyesight protectors, proper shoes and hand gloves," he said.

Marine scientist and researcher Prof Noman Ahmed Siddiqui said the government authorities hardly monitor the working conditions in the ship-breaking yards and the job hazards being faced by the workers which are the main reasons behind the raise in human casualties in the emerging ship-breaking sector.

Leaders of the ship-breaking association claimed that scrapping obsolete ships has emerged as one of the major revenue-earning sectors apart from creating huge employment opportunities.

They said at least 40,000 ultra-poor people are dependent indirectly on incomes from the yards and they are trying their level best for bringing human causalities in the sector to zero level.

Rescuers of the Civil Defence alleged that many ship-breaking yard owners were reluctant to report yard accidents to police to avoid paying compensations to the family members of the victims.

Even basic facilities like medical examination and first-aid services for workers are absent, said assistant director of Chittagong Fire Service and Civil Defence ABM Nurul Haque.

Although some private voluntary and environmental organisations like Bangladesh Environmental and Lawyers' Association (BELA) and Young Power and Social Action (YPSA) and Department of Environment (DoE) with development partners have started raising voice against the unscientific method of ship breaking, no effective measure has been taken from the state side to regulate the ship-breaking sector.