Govt allows toxic ship import

The government has legalised import of toxic ships for scrapping without pre-cleaning or decontamination.
Environmental activists called the government action suicidal and warned it would expose tens of thousands of people to toxic wastes that would pose a grave threat to environment, ecology and the lives and health of workers at ship-breaking yards and residents living in the surroundings.
The government on April 8 amended the Import Policy Order to allow import of toxic ships and the gazette notification of the amendment was published on Monday.
The environmentalists have resolved to challenge the government action in the court as the amendment has been made in violation of a High Court ruling.
Article 25(40) of the Import Policy Order 2009-2012, issued on January 26, stipulated that importers, to obtain permission for import of scrap vessels, must submit a certificate issued by the government of the exporter’s country or by any agency authorised by that government stating that the ship has been cleaned and contains no toxic materials.
The amended article says that the importers, to bring scrap vessels, will need to submit a certificate issued by the exporter and a declaration made by the importer stating that the vessel carries no other toxic or hazardous wastes except the in-built ones.
The executive director of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers’ Association, Syeda Rizwana Hasan, and environment lawyer Iqbal Kabir told New Age on Monday that the amended provision legalised the import of scrap ships carrying in-built wastes such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), TBT, oil, asbestos some of which can even cause cancer.
‘Now there is no way the government can stop entry of vessels containing deadly asbestos or PCPs in its body,’ Rizwana said.
The amendment is a clear violation of the Basel Convention 1989 and the High Court verdict on the issue, said Rizwana and Iqbal.
The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association will challenge the order in court, they said.
The Import Policy Order 2009-2012 was issued on January 26 with the precondition for import of scrap ships in accordance with the High Court verdict and the Basel Convention, they added.
The High Court bench of Justice Md Imman Ali and Justice Sheikh Abdul Awal, in a verdict on March 17, 2009, ordered that vessels having hazardous wastes or containing hazardous materials ‘has to be decontaminated at source or outside the territories of Bangladesh’ following the Basel Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes, 1989.
The convention requires all wastes to be removed by the producer prior to the vessel’s cross-boundary movement.
Bangladesh has no ability to deal with the in-built contaminants or wastes of ships, yet it is importing the same simply to help the European countries to get rid of their hazardous junk ships, said Rizwana and Iqbal.
Although ship-breakers claim they meet 80 per cent of the country’s demand for iron, according to documents available with the customs, only 25 per cent of the demand for iron is met by ship-breaking yards and the rest is imported, they said.
The environmental activists also mentioned that at least 38 workers were killed and 49 maimed in accidents at ship-breaking yards in Bangladesh in last two years and most of the accidents were caused by hazardous materials contained in scrap vessels.
The government earlier banned two vessels, including the SS Norway which contained 1,250 tonnes of asbestos, from being dismantled in its scrap yards after the ships were branded toxic by the Greenpeace.

THE NEW AGE