Waste treatment plant still a long way off

The government enacted the Bangladesh Ship Recycling Act in 2018 and asked the authorities concerned to build a Treatment Storage and Disposal Facility (TSDF) within 3 years for the safe disposal of hazardous waste.

However, five years have passed since then. The construction is yet to be completed.

The Ministry of Industries has already taken up a project to conduct a feasibility study to construct the long-awaited TSDF.

Under the project, the ministry has earmarked 20 acres of land in Chattogram's Sitakunda upazila for setting up the TSDF.

Md Zafar Ullah, director of the TSDF Feasibility Study project and additional secretary of the ministry, said the project study has been completed, at a cost of Tk 4 crore.

The project will cost around Tk 500 crore and negotiations to fund it with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) are currently underway, he said.

He also mentioned that the pandemic was the main reason behind the delay.

"We have already applied for site clearance and initial environmental examination to the Department of Environment," he added.

Ferdous Anwar, deputy director of the DoE Chattogram district office, said, "The project is appealing but there are errors in the application."

"We have already sent a letter to the project authorities and will approve the amended application once we receive that," he added.

Mentionable, a World Bank study estimated that 79,000 tonnes of asbestos, 240,000 tonnes of PCB (harmful chemical compound), 19,78,000 tonnes of organic liquid waste, 775 tonnes of inorganic waste and 2,10,000 tonnes of ozone-depleting substance would be deposited in the soil and water of the Sitakunda coastal belt from 2010 to 2030.

The High Court ruled in 2009 that no ships could enter Bangladeshi territory without first receiving a pre-cleaning certificate from an organisation that will ensure the ships are free of hazardous waste.

Abu Taher, president of the Bangladesh Ship Breakers and Recyclers Association (BSBRA), said in the absence of a central sewage treatment plant, waste from the ship-breaking industry is scattered everywhere, resulting in severe environmental pollution.

"We have repeatedly requested the Ministry of Industries to construct the treatment plant," he added.

Ships were mostly disassembled in Europe and the US up until the 1970s. As social and environmental protection legislation became more stringent in those regions of the world, the business moved to developing countries with lax legal systems.

Roughly 800 ships reach the end of their useful life and must be dismantled and repurposed each year. Around 70 percent of these ships wash up on the beaches of Alang in India, Chattogram in Bangladesh and Gadani in Pakistan.

According to the recyclers association, the shipbreaking industry started to take shape in Sitakunda in the 1960s.

Around 40 to 50 percent of the world's old ocean-going ships have been dismantled in shipbreaking yards in the past two decades.

However, accidents involving workers and environmental degradation have been increasing due to a lack of a policy in the country.

The government passed Bangladesh Ship Recycling Act, 2018, in the face of domestic and international pressure.