Chittagong, Bangladesh (Sources) — Rizwana Hasan is a divisive figure in Bangladesh. Heralded by some as an eco-pioneer, a labor rights campaigner and a “take no prisoners” lawyer, she also is characterized as being on a mission to destroy an industry that employs thousands.

Her works focuses on the effects of the ship-breaking industry in Chittagong. Each year hundreds of massive tankers, ferries and cargo ships from around the world are driven onto the mud flats in Chittagong, and then literally attacked by hundreds of men armed with little more than hammers, cutters and brute-force.

They strip the ships for their scrap metal, salvaging what they can, discarding what they can’t. Rizwana is the executive director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) and has been fighting the industry for decades. BELA has launched numerous legal challenges against the shipyards, which it claims don’t care about the environment or the safety of their employees.

“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,” Rizwana Hasan told CNN.

“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,” she said.
The issue of worker safety also is a concern.

The casualties of the trade are easy to find — Mohammed Murad worked in ship-breaking for 10 years until a 20-ton slab of metal fell on his leg last year. He says that, with Rizwana’s help, he got some compensation, but the company had originally refused to pay anything after he lost his leg.

“It’s too dangerous, too dangerous. The company doesn’t give us any security,” Murad said. “They tell us to do it quickly, to cut quickly, If you die in the field, no problem, but you have to work quickly.”

There are 78 ship-breaking yards scattered along the Chittagong coast. As we found out when we traveled there, most are hidden from the road, often unmarked at the end of small lanes from the highway. The staff was unwilling to let us film inside or talk to the owners.

Last year, Rizwana says some 160 ships were dismantled in the yards — a process described as ship recycling by the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. agency responsible for maritime safety and preventing pollution from ships. Rizwana calls it an “old boys club” for the industry.

Rizwana grew up in a politically active family and after completing her masters at age 24 she joined BELA, rising to become one of the country’s leading lawyers and the association’s director. In 2009 she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental prize.

Rebuffing accusations from critics, she insists she does not want the ship-breaking industry to shut down. She realizes its 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. She says ships containing hazardous material, such as asbestos, need to have these substances removed before they arrive in Bangladesh. She says the country simply doesn’t have the facilities to deal with them. In March 2009 Bangladesh’s Supreme Court ruled that ships entering the country for decommissioning must be “pre-cleaned” in line with The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, known more simply as the Basel Convention.

The international treaty was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations. Under the treaty, a country must not allow the export of a ship containing hazardous materials if it suspects that the waste will not be properly dealt with by the ship-breaking country.

Dr. Nikos Mikelis from the International Maritime Organization agrees that the ship-breaking industry needs better regulation but says it performs a vital role in Bangladesh, providing valuable jobs.

“It’s a benefit to the country, all that is missing is order and order can brought by suitable regulation and enforcement. I believe it can be done. You don’t close down the industry because it’s not doing correctly now, you adjust it,” Mikelis said.

According to Rizwana, the problem is that in countries like Bangladesh, rules such as the Basel Convention are not always observed and not applied to the ships themselves, only to their cargo. She maintains that ships often are re-registered in “flag of convenience” countries before being sent to Chittagong, with few checks about what hazardous substances are contained within the equipment and superstructure of the vessel.

While Rizwana has won a number of key legal battles, she says many of the shipyards’ bad practices continue, with new yards opening each year. Her opponents at the yards themselves remain acutely angry with her — so much so that she feels it would be unsafe for her to even travel to Chittagong. But Rizwana says simply shining a spotlight on the industry is an achievement in itself.

“We have been able to give a bad name to the industry, and the industry deserves a bad name,” she said.

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Regent Airways (Dhaka) is a new airline being formed in Bangladesh by HG Aviation Limited, a subsidiary of the Habib Group. The new airline intends to commence operations in August with two ex-Augsburg Airways Bombardier DHC-8-300s for domestic and regional routes. For its longer range routes, the company intends to operate two leased Boeing 757-200s

Regent Airways is set to buy two aircraft for nearly $15 million in a bid to open flights by August. The upcoming carrier said it signed a letter of intent with German operator Augsburg Airways to obtain two 50-seater Dash-8-Q300 aircraft, manufactured in 1999 and 2000 respectively in Canada by Bombardier Aerospace, according to the airline. ??We are likely to begin commercial flights in the first week of August, said Mashruf Habib, managing director of Regent Airways of HG Aviation Ltd.

?The company is a concern of Chittagong-based conglomerate Habib Group that is into apparels, power, steel, paper and fertiliser. The Group records turnover worth over Tk 2,000 crore a year. Regent, which already received permission to set up infrastructure for the airline, also said it aims to induct two Boeing 757-200 aircraft on dry lease for four years. ??The aircraft will be gradually deployed to operate on Regent’s domestic and mid-haul routes,?? said Imran Asif, chief executive of Regent Airways. Regent is the fourth entrant to the aviation market. But two of them — Best Air and Aviana Airways — are now grounded, mainly because of the financial crunch. Habib said his carrier would be able to stay on in the air travel business because of its parent organisation’s. financial strength

ABOUT HABIB GROUP:

Founder : Late Habib Ullah Meah
.?
Business Sectors : ? Apparel
? Cement
? Fertilizer
? Paper
? Power
? Shares and Securities
? Ship Breaking
? Spinning
? Steels
? Textile
?
.?
Man Power : 15,000+
.?
Yearly Turnover : $305 Million (USD)
.?
Asset Value: $180 Million (USD)?
.?
Affiliates : ? ANZ properties
? Continental Insurance
? East Delta University
? International Finance Investment and Commerce Bank Limited (IFIC Bank)
? National Credit and Commerce Bank (NCC Bank)
? Southern Medical College and Hospital?

Habib Group epitomizes prospect and prosperity. HG was founded in the year 1947 as a trading company by late Habib Ullah Meah. He was the son of late Naju Meah, a prominent businessperson of undivided India. Naju Meah was the first President of Assam Bengal Chamber of Commerce. After the demise of Habib Ullah Meah in 1981, his three sons Yakub Ali, Mahabub Ali and Yasin Ali took over the HG. Over the years, the Group has invested in various business sectors of Bangladesh. Employing more than 15000 people and having investments in various businesses the HG has established itself as one of the largest and prominent business houses of Bangladesh. HG is still expanding its wings and diversifying its business interests in Bangladesh. Our commitment and financial strength has given us the reputation of being one of the finest torch bearers of the business houses of Bangladesh.

Our goal is to exceed the expectations of every client by offering outstanding product, increased flexibility, and greater value, thus optimizing system functionality and improving operation efficiency. Our employees are distinguished by their functional and technical expertise combined with their hands-on experience. In HG, at any stage, quality has never been compromised and customer satisfaction has always been our top priority.

In Short Habib Group Means:
Optimum quality, Responsibility to society, Consistency, Speed with flexibility and Competitive price.

These really are the mantras of HG and shall be pursued tirelessly.

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The government amended a law late Sunday allowing the world’s largest ship-breaking industry to no longer require documentation from selling nations’ environmental authorities certifying the vessels were free of toxic substances.Environmentalists slammed a decision by Bangladesh’s government that eased restrictions on ship-breaking in the impoverished South Asian country, saying tens of thousands of people could be exposed to toxic waste.

An industry association praised the move, however, saying it will benefit the country’s economy.

Environmental campaigners branded a move Monday by Bangladesh to ease strict controls on its vital shipbreaking industry as “suicidal”, saying it would expose tens of thousands to toxic waste.

The government amended a law late Sunday to permit the industry to bring in ships using their own declarations that the vessels are free from toxic materials, the shipping department said.

Under a government order in January, ships heading for Bangladeshi breaking yards were required to be certified by the selling nation’s environmental authorities.

But the tougher rules hit the industry, which is a major earner in the impoverished nation.

“The previous order has badly affected the shipbreaking industry, which is a vital sector for the economy. We amended it to make sure the industry can keep on growing,” said Bazlur Rahman, shipping department head.

The change will help scores of scrapyards in the southeastern coastal town of Sitakundu, which last year accounted for 30 percent of the vessels dismantled worldwide, said London-based broker Clarkson Research.

Shipbreakers stopped work for nearly a month because none of the ships could get certificates after the government tightened the environmental rules but rights groups hailed it as their “biggest achievement”.

More than 20 ships were stuck at the Chittagong Port, according to the customs department, which refused to clear the vessels imported without toxic-free certificates from environmental agencies.

Domestic iron prices shot up by 20 percent as the construction industry is heavily dependent on steel recycled from vessels.

Environmentalists blasted the government’s flip-flop, saying it would lead to the pollution of Bangladesh’s coastline and expose tens of thousands of workers to deadly waste such as asbestos.

Mohammad Ali Shaheen, the head of the NGO Platform on Shipbreaking, called the order “suicidal” and underlined the weakness of the authorities and lack of commitment to uphold labour and environmental standards.

“It gives shipbreakers a free hand to import ships that contain deadly toxic waste like asbestos, mercury and PCPs. Once again, the government has kow-towed to rogue traders,” he said.

Last year, 26 people were killed at the scrap yards, a figure that charities call a huge underestimate as it only counts on-site accidents and does not include workers laid off after becoming ill by toxic chemicals.

Ships heading for Bangladesh routinely contain chemicals like asbestos banned in many countries.

Leading Bangladesh lawyer and environmental campaigner Syeda Rizwana Hassan said the new order “legitimised” the dumping of toxic materials that are contained in scrap ships.

“There is now no way you can stop entry of vessels which contain deadly asbestos or PCPs in its body,” she said.

“It’s a farce,” she said, adding her group, the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, would challenge the order in court.

Bangladesh earlier banned two vessels, including the SS Norway which contained 1,250 tonnes of asbestos, from being dismantled in its scrapyards after the ships were branded as toxic by Greenpeace.

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CHITTAGONG, Bangladesh ? Bangladesh’s ship breaking yards ground to a halt Monday as some 30,000 workers protested a government decree aimed at improving environmental standards in the industry, police said.

Under a government order issued in late January said, ships heading for breaking yards must now be certified as toxic chemical-free before they are imported and scrapped.

“Ship breakers are demanding the order be reversed and 30,000 ship breaking workers are protesting with a massive rally in the centre of Chittagong,” said local police chief Monirul Islam, referring to Bangladesh’s second-largest city.

The order comes after a boom year for ship breakers, with the number of yards growing to around 100 from just 40 in early 2009 and turnover hitting a record 700 million dollars.

With no natural iron ore deposits, Bangladesh is dependent on recycled steel for its fast-growing economy. Some 45 percent of the world’s ship breaking happens on the southeastern Sitakundu coast.

“The government order is tantamount to a death sentence for the industry,” said Jafar Alam, head of the Bangladeshi ship-breakers association.

“Tens of thousands of workers will lose their jobs because of the order,” he said.

The industry employs an estimated 40,000 people.

Activists hailed the government’s order as the “biggest achievement in many years” in their battle to enforce environmental and work safety standards in the yards.

“Now the yards cannot import ships that contain deadly toxic waste like asbestos, mercury and PCPs,” said Mohammad Ali Shaheen, the local head of the rights group coalition, NGO Platform on Ship Breaking.

“It will ensure the safety of the workers who were made to clean up these pollutants with their bare hands. The government has proved that it’s stronger than the ship breakers and I hope it won’t back off from this stand.”

Last year, 26 people were killed at the ship breaking yards, a figure that charities call a huge underestimate, as it only counts on-site accidents and does not include workers who were laid off after being made ill by toxic chemicals.

Ships heading for Bangladesh routinely contain chemicals banned in many developed countries such as asbestos.
…
It is stated by the environment and forest ministry that government officials would examine the ships to issue cleaning certificates at this end. What we can understand is that the responsibility of whether a ship carries toxic substances would now critically and entirely, devolve on our officials. Of course, these would have to be examined at our end; by all means do it; but would it not have been a fail-safe mechanism if the pre-cleaning certificates were produced by the exporters to do an effective cross-checking with? We feel that the relaxation of the rule could spawn manipulation, and even corruption, even though the environment ministry seems determined not to allow intrusion of hazardous vessels in to our maritime territory .

As it is, a large number of ship breaking yards themselves have no clearance certificates; yet they are operating with impunity risking all sorts of hazard to 30,000 workers and posing economic risks to their dependents.

Clearly, government’s compliance with the High Court directives to formulate necessary ship-breaking laws in conformity with Bangladesh’s obligations under international conventions and her own environment conservation act and rules has been long overdue

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Ship breaking industry is a key economic infrustuctaral industry,now facing ?the environmental oblication through court . considering the whole economy factor its unwise…..serious calculative decision should be taken by govt. Economy vs environment. Ofcourse the economy should be prior. govt should take innitiative to protect environment alternative way not by ruling by court ….this is not the time to be so concious for environment rather than economy. .

there are more vital issues to work with……..

Court Ruling Could Sink Bangladesh Shipbreaking Industry

The Bangladesh High Court has ordered that the country’s ship-dismantling operations must close in two weeks if they do not obtain government environmental clearance.

more >>>>>>

Ship-breaking shutdown

This court order is long overdue. Simply put, the industry has been operating in blatant defiance of the most basic environmental regulations that are on the books. The court has done nothing more than order compliance with the existing law, and no one can have any complaint if laws are implemented as they should be.

more…..>>>>>

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