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… Environmental Justice: the case of ship breaking

… Environmental Justice: the case of ship breaking. S. Rizwana Hasan Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh & Chief Executive, BELA 9 July, 2014. Judgment (5 and 17 March, 2009). Closure of ship breaking yards without clearance Ships imported have to decontaminated outside B angladesh

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… Environmental Justice: the case of ship breaking

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  1. …Environmental Justice: the case of ship breaking S. RizwanaHasan Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh & Chief Executive, BELA 9 July, 2014

  2. Judgment (5 and 17 March, 2009) • Closure of ship breaking yards without clearance • Ships imported have to decontaminated outside Bangladesh • Framing of Rules (applicable national laws and the Basel Convention) • Setting up of High Level Technical Committee to monitor and oversee implementation of court orders • Clearance to be given only after compliance is ensured

  3. Judgments (9 Sept.,‘10; 6 Oct.,‘13) •  A hazardous and polluting operation as that of shipbreaking cannot continue on open beaches without proper safety of the people of the coastal area as well as protection of the eco-system. •  The Government has no authority to lease out seashore, coastal areas and forest lands as ship breaking yards •  lease agreements purporting to lease out sea shore and lands of Coastal Green Belt in favour of the ship breakers are against public interest and without lawful authority and as such of no legal effect. •  16 ship breaking yards to be removed and the lands afforested

  4. Rules • Hazardous Wastes and Ship Breaking Waste Management Rules, 2011 (22 December, 2011; MoEF) premised on Basel; barred import if ships not certified by authorized agents of exporting countries as not containing hazardous wastes; implementation rests with a National Technical Committee under MoEF

  5. Rules (continued…) • The Ship Breaking and Recycling Rules, 2011 (12 December, 2011) • premised on the Hong Kong Convention, Basel Convention and the Ilo Guidelines; proposes formation of a Ship Building and Ship Recycling Board (SBSRB) to give NoC for import of ships; DoE examines the ships for hazardous wastes and materials excluding in-built hazardous materials; Department of Explosives certifeis for ‘Gas fee for hot work’; authorises beaching

  6. Import • 72 ships imported from March’09-June’11 Union of Comoros – 8 Cyprus (EU) – 1 Panama – 14 St. Kitts & Nevis – 5 Nigeria – 1 Thai – 2 Tuvalu – 6 China – 2 St. Vincent & Grenadines – 3 Liberia – 7 Comoros – 2 Malta (EU) – 3 Bahamas – 2 Bangladesh – 1 Moldova – 2 Marshal Island – 2 Sierra Leone – 5 Cambodia – 1 USA – 1 Hong Kong – 2 Malaysia – 1 Australia – 1 • *Mostly built in EU countries like Germany, Denmark, Bulgaria, Poland, Belgium, Greece, Italy, UK, Cyprus, Netherlands, UK, Malts • * 2012 -206 ships;2013- 194 ships (EU 64)

  7. Sample of Pre-cleaning Certificate

  8. Sample of pre-cleaning certificate (Contd.)

  9. Labour Conditions (dealths 50; injuries 100) Sources: National Geographic, NGO Ship Breaking Platform, FIDH

  10. The Toxic Industry on the Beach Hazardous material Unit Bangladesh Asbestos t 79,000 PCBs (mainly cables) t 240,000 ODS (mainly polyurethane foam) t 210,000 Paints (metals, tributyltin (TBT) and PCBs) t 69,200 Heavy metals t 678 Waste liquid organic m3 1,978,000 Miscellaneous (mainly sewage) m3 107,000 Waste liquids inorganic (acids) t 775 Reusable liquids organics t 675,000 Source: The World Bank, 2010 Ship Breaking and Recycling Industry in Bangladesh and Pakistan

  11. DoE Inspection Reports (23.10.12) Asbestos & Glass Wool (40 kg from one yard)  Waste Oil (10 thousand litres)  PCB Sludges  No PPEs  No Ship Dismantling Plan  All seven yards fined; clearances not cancelled

  12. Orders and Application • At least 3 subsequent orders (8.5.11;21.711;27.10.11) directed • formation of independent committees to check compliance with import requirements, trainings of workers, conditions for ship dismantling, treatment, and so on. • Committees formed but irregular or no meetings • Biased monitoring resulting in no improvements • Application filed in Feb.,’14 seeking implementation of orders on independent monitoring

  13. Challenges

  14. Good genie vs evil genie

  15. Challenges

  16. “The industry is never going to change if we don’t push it. The pressure only comes when the government begins to show some commitment in this. So far the rules aren’t very tight, and we want to change that. The problem already has the court’s word, now we have to keep pushing. And we’ll keep pushing until we get what we want.” Quoted in: SHIPPINGWATCH November 2013

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