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Alang: Building on the E-factor

Vinod Mathew

THE world's largest shipbreaking yard, which had in recent years been facing much flak on the international scale for fetching up short on the safety, health and environment (SHE) front, is threatening to turn a new leaf. This comes in the wake of the so le regulatory body at Alang -- the Gujarat Maritime Board (GMB) -- deciding to crack the whip in no uncertain manner, much to the chagrin of the 100-odd ship-breakers of Alang, who had been having things much their way ever since the world's largest g raveyard for ships came up off the Bhavnagar coast in Saurashtra a couple of decades back.

Much of the industry glare was turned on Alang during the Second Global Summit on Ship Recycling Industry that was held in Amsterdam on June 25, and the GMB, on behalf of the Alang industry, has made it clear that it was taking significant steps towards SHE compliance.

While it still had a fair distance to travel in the field of environmental compliance, it is the GMB's contention that Alang is fighting fit on the safety and health aspects. For a number of years now, these two areas have been miring the Alang countenan ce as being one of the ugliest faces of third world industry dabbling its hands in toxic waste, powered by the sole claim of cheap labour.

According to Mr P. N. Roy Choudhury, vice-chairman and CEO, GMB: ``The Alang ship-recycling yard has been on a remarkable turnaround trajectory ever since the GMB (Prevention of Fire & Accidents for Safety & Welfare of Workers and Protection of Environme nt During Ship Breaking Activities) Regulations, 2000 was enacted with effect from September last.

Since then, Alang has made major strides on the safety and health factors with both accidents and death getting reduced by 50 per cent. The next endeavour would be to tackle the E-factor on the SHE agenda. But that can get going only once the landfill -- to handle the toxic waste from ships -- gets going in April next,'' Mr Choudhury said.

The GMB has already acquired five hectares of land in Manar village, three km off Alang, and this is to be shaped as the land fill that will absorb all toxic waste coming from the ship breaking yard. As per a nine-month study carried out by the Engineers India Ltd (EIL), which analysed the nature of waste emanating from ships that are broken at Alang, it has been declared that except a couple of items such as hospital waste that required to be incinerated, the rest can be dumped in the land fill.

The fact that EIL had to pip bodies such as the Environment Resource Management, the UK, and Haskoning, Holland, for the Alang turnaround strategy project, underlines the level of commitment by the GMB in the present context. Thus, Mr Choudhury feels tha t the international ship-recycling industry should harp less on how items such as asbestos should be disposed.

``Rather, the industry should appreciate the major changes that have taken place at Alang on the S and H factors. Clearly, we would also be addressing the E-factor as well. Meanwhile, we have brought down the incidence of accidents from 60 in the previou s year to only 18 in 2000-01 and that of deaths from 30 to 16 in the same period. As per a scale of accidents per one lakh LDT (light displacement tonnage), it has dipped from 2.18 in 99-00 to 0.93 (2000-01) while in the case of deaths it has come down f rom 1.12 to 0.82,'' Mr Choudhury elaborated.

The Alang scrap steel business accounts for nearly 20 per cent of the country's consumption, an average day at the shipbreaking yard being worth business to the tune of Rs 7 crore where some 8,000 tonnes of scrap steel is pushed out from this coastal noo k each day. A business that has been consistently netting an annual turnover of $500 million or so during the last couple of years.

However, the changes have not come without a cost as almost the entire shipbreaking community is up in arms against the reforms being ushered in by the GMB, the latter's argument that it will ultimately bring Alang more business notwithstanding. With the Chinese ship-recycling industry catching the imagination of the fleet-owners with their futuristic outlook, there had been much fear in Gujarat that Alang would soon be bypassed as the favoured destination for Rite de Passage of ships, the worldover.

``There is no way shipbreaking plots can be shut down for weeks and sometimes months, solely at the discretion of the GMB in the name of becoming SHE-compliant. The entire exercise, which began at the behest of agencies such as Green Peace International, has been done primarily by raising the bogey of the Chinese ship-recycling industry emerging as a SHE-compliant giant at our cost. We have appealed to the State government which has set up a committee to look at areas of the Regulation that can be amend ed,'' said sources in the Gujarat Shipbreakers' Association (GSA) -- the sole representative body which also pointed fingers at the domestic steel industry which is going through a bad phase and can do without competition from Alang.

Some of the areas of the GMB's Alang Regulation became clear as work was suspended in as many as eight plots for 15-20 days during April-May this year on account accidents causing death. Earlier, there was also an instance where shipbreaking was suspende d in a plot for as long as three months, where three labourers lost their lives. Enough to have the ship-breaking community that is gearing up to switch to the role of `ship-recyclers', see red, that too in abundance.

Foremost among the guidelines that have already become major irritants in the Alang regulations for the shipbreaking community are:

*In the event of fire/explosion/accident involving death or permanent disability of 20 per cent or more, all shipbreaking activities in the plot will be suspended for 15 days and provide an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 25,000 or more as decided by t he Board;

*In case of second incident of fire/ explosion/accident involving death or permanent disability of 40 per cent or more in the same plot, the permission for shipbreaking may be cancelled and other penal action taken;

*In case of accident resulting in death of more than one individual, the permission for utilisation of the plot for shipbreaking activities to be cancelled with immediate effect and appropriate penal action taken depending on the gravity of the incident.

Clearly, the ball is in the State government's court and the extent to which Alang would become SHE-complaint and, in the process, emerge as a modern ship-recycling centre in the world, shedding its current garb of the ``most dangerous business destinati on in the country'', would depend on whether it bows to pressure from the shipbreakers. With not a single voice being raised for the hapless labourers at Alang by the state legislators, the ship-recycling world is closely monitoring Alang, as any backwar d step would surely mean bad business in the coming days.

Pic.: Alang shipbreaking yard... Fighting fit on the safety and health aspects.