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Santanu Sanyal

A Greenpeace toxics patrol off the Alang shipbreaking yard... The Kolkata port too is planning a ship-breaking facility, though at a time when not many ships are being offered for demolition worldwide, and the activity itself is being discouraged on environmental grounds.

THE Kolkata Port Trust, its Chairman has been quoted as saying, is keen that ship-breaking activity develops within the Kolkata Dock System (KDS). The port will provide the necessary facilities, the Chairman has said. This is not for the first time ship-breaking operation is receiving the attention of the Kolkata port authorities. Earlier, several ship-breakers were active on the KDS waterfront. But the activity dropped subsequently.

Interestingly, the Kolkata port plans to revive ship-breaking operations at a time when not many ships are being offered for demolition worldwide. Also, ship-breaking activity in several parts of India, as elsewhere in the world, is being discouraged on the ground of protection of environment.

According to a recent report in the Lloyd's List, there has been a decline in the tonnage available for demolition. In 2003, as many as 557 vessels, totalling 25.76 million DWT, were offered for demolition worldwide. The figure in 2004 was 348 (10.79 m DWT). In the first half of 2005, 97 vessels totalling 3.3 m DWT were available. India, which tops the list of the shipbreaking nations, too is experiencing a lull. In 2004, as many as 151 ships (2,088,540 DWT) were offered here for demolition; in the first six months of the current year only 41 (740,640 DWT) came up. There is a shortage of condemned tonnage in the market.

The Andhra Pradesh Government's plans to set up a ship-breaking yard at Kakinada have led to violent protests, even threats of legal action, from citizen's groups. These groups fear that the State government's proposed move, if succeeds, will have disastrous consequences for marine ecosystems besides throwing up a host of other problems. The white sandy beaches will not only turn into a scrap-yard for old and toxic ships, there will also be socio-economic problems currently being witnessed by the world's largest ship demolition yard at Alang in Gujarat.

India's ship-breaking beaches have been the focus of concern of the environmentalists all over the world for quite some time. The pictures of workers on the beaches of Alang ripping apart with their bare hands the most lethal forms of asbestos undoubtedly invited sharp criticisms from various quarters.

On visiting Mumbai's ship-breaking yard at Darukhana in December 2002, Greenpeace demanded a ban on the practice of dumping ships with hazardous waste on Indian shores. But only a few months ago, a Danish ship, Riky, declared hazardous in Denmark as it had not been stripped of hazardous material on board, was illegally beached at Alang with falsified papers even though Denmark's Environment Minister had alerted New Delhi about the vessels's impending arrival. Clearly, not everything relating to ship-breaking is all right in this country.

No wonder there have been pressures on the government as well as the ship-breakers for taking initiatives for a safer and more environment-friendly way of scrapping ships. Some initiatives are believed to have been taken. One is the introduction of safety manuals outlining the current best practices in the ship-breaking industry. Another concerns oil reception facility.

The oil extraction of ships in Alang has often been described as "unsatisfactory and dangerous". It is felt that steps need to be taken to stop the current practices of cheating, fraud and falsification of documents.

There have also been suggestions for setting up "zero pollution" or "green" yards by using new technology, more so because there is a market for demolition of 700 ships a year including 1,300 single-hull tankers that have to be phased out by 2007, around 270 drilling platforms and 32 European problem vessels.

According to one estimate, more than 2000 oil tankers will have to be decommissioned over the next five years. The Kolkata Port Trust Chairman has clearly set his eyes on some of these ships hoping that their demolition within the dock will generate revenue for the port.

Environmentalists fear that most of these so-called "end-of-life" ships will be dumped on Asian beaches, particularly India. If that happens, the pressure on the yards will increase not only leading to more deaths and pollution but also threatening to turn many clean beaches into toxic graveyards.

The global ban on single-hull oil tankers came into force this April but nobody — neither the industry nor the regulatory authorities — seems to know how many of these vessels operate outside the law on seas worldwide. The European Union pushed for a phase-out but did not provide measures for ensuring safe and clean breaking of these ships.

Meanwhile, the Council of the European Union has urged the International Maritime Organisation to establish mandatory reporting on ship disposal. It invited the UN agency to establish within the shortest possible time a ship recycling contract plan, "green passport" and a list of hazardous materials on ships to be demolished. Explicitly, the Council recalled the part of Basel Convention which notes that a ship may become waste and yet remain a ship under international rules.

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