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Regulation of ship recycling

New pact
Last Updated 17 May 2009, 15:57 IST

The dismantling of ships, so that their steel and other materials can be sold as scrap, is often done on or near beaches in poor countries, notably India and Bangladesh.

Both nations have pledged to improve working conditions and environmental practices. But activists contend that the process still kills and maims many workers each year and results in the contamination of shorelines with asbestos, oily waste, toxic paint and other dangerous materials.

The new agreement, the International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, requires all vessels to carry detailed, regularly updated inventories of hazardous materials throughout their years of service, and for this information to be provided to recycling facilities. The convention calls for workers at these centres to be equipped with a wide range of protective gear, for the centres to have disposal procedures for hazardous materials and for emergency response plans to be prepared.

But the pact does not require that hazardous materials be removed by specially trained workers following western safety practices before the rest of the vessel can be cut apart — a provision some environmentalists and labour activists had sought. Enforcement is left to the governments of countries, without an international regulatory agency.

Not foolproof

A wide range of countries have endorsed the pact, including European nations that have pressed for tougher standards to protect workers in poor countries and limit coastal pollution.

But environmental groups quickly denounced the draft agreement, negotiated under the auspices of the United Nations’ International Maritime Organisation, as weaker than other global environmental pacts.

Jim Puckett, the executive director of the Basel Action Network in Seattle, came to Hong Kong for the final drafting session this week. He complained that the agreement would not entirely ban the practice of dismantling ships on beaches instead of in dockyards.
Delegates cautioned that it was still possible that the agreement would fall apart at the last moment, but they said that was very unlikely.

The United States and Europe still have ship recycling industries that want tougher standards imposed on their competitors in poor countries. But dismantling ships is a labour-intensive activity that is a huge employer in developing nations.

International Herald Tribune

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(Published 17 May 2009, 15:57 IST)

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