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The Ministry of Industries has taken an initiative to move back the shipbreaking industry from the highly hazardous “red” category to less hazardous “orange” category as the Bangladesh Ship Breakers and Recyclers Association (BSBRA) was opposing the new law since the beginning.
On May 15, a letter signed by Deputy Secretary Md Mominur Rashid of the ministry, directed the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change to take necessary steps to ensure “Orange B” environmental status for the shipyards in the port city.
The letter stated that the ship breaking industry has been reclassified as “Red” in Schedule-1 of the Environment Protection Act, 2023 (Serial-72) (Dialogue-3) halting the ship breaking activities.
Since April 16, the ship breaking activities were suspended due to a delay in various clearances from the respective bodies although the Ministry of Industries had already permitted the ship breakers to continue works.
As a result, the investors involved with the industry are facing immense financial losses, which will hinder further investment and may cause instability in the steel-rod market of the country, according to the letter sent to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Besides, the government is committed to ensure occupational health protection and labour safety of the ship-breaking yard workers and is converting the yards into green ones in compliance with the Hong Kong Convention on Ship Recycling along with enacting the Recycling Act 2018.
The environmental damage caused by yard operations will also be reduced through the international standard yard management and monitoring systems, according to the letter.
The letter asked to take necessary measures to keep the ship reprocessing industry under category “Orange-B” by amending the schedule of Environmental Protection Act 2023 for the purpose of continuing the investment while also taking environmental protection into consideration.
When contacted, BSBRA Assistant Secretary Nazmul Islam told The Business Post, “We are facing various international and environmental problems as the shipbreaking industry has been reenlisted as ‘red’ under the Environmental Act. We have already informed the Ministry of Industries regarding the matter.
“BSBRA is taking one to two months for issuing various clearance certificates. Even after beaching the yard, the owners are not able to continue the ship breaking activities due to the procedural delay,” he added.
“While the country’s yards are moving towards being green yards, it is illogical to categorise them as ‘red’ under the act. However, this recommendation by the Ministry of Industries will help bring back the prosperity of the ship breaking industry,” he added.
He also said that the “red” category meant for highly hazardous while the “orange” one as less hazardous. Many countries have expressed reluctance in selling scrap ships to Bangladesh for being in the “red” category.
But there is some relief as the country's ship breaking industry is advancing towards building green yards, he added.
