The shipbreaking yard in Gadani, Pakistan is one of largest shipbreakers in the world and is literally where ships go to die. Tragically, workers too often die there as well. A series of explosions yesterday in a tanker being broken up at Gadani has left 21 workers dead and 60 injured. Additional workers remain unaccounted for.
UPI describes the explosions and fire: “The explosions occurred in an oil tanker ship being disassembled at the world’s third-largest ship-breaking facility, which covers about 6 miles of the Arabian Sea coast in Baluchistan province. Some of the approximately 100 workers dismantling the ship were trapped within it. Some of those who escaped jumped into the water, India Express reported.
The entire ship was engulfed in a fast-spreading fire, rescue workers said. Eight explosions, caused by welding work, could be heard within the ship, and more are feared. Rescue operations were slowed because only one fire engine was present.“
For the past several decades, yards in South Asia have dominated the ship breaking industry. The largest yards are located on the beaches of Alang, India; Chittagong, Bangladesh; and Gadani, Pakistan. According to the latest quarterly report from NGO Shipbreaking Platform, 85 % of ships scrapped worldwide ended up on the beaches of South Asia.
The South Asian yards use a technique called “beaching” where a ship is run up on a beach, where workers use torches to cut away steel. As steel is removed and the ship grows lighter the ship is hauled higher up on the beach. The technique is less expensive than scrapping a ship in a drydock but is also highly dangerous to both workers and the environment.
A shipbreaking report from the IL&PI from May 2106, states: “There is a general lack of data on accidents at Gadani. Iqbal and Heidegger note that “neither the operators nor the authorities document accidents, casualties and occupational diseases”. This does not mean that accidents do not occur. In 2012, a Pakistani trade union recorded 12 deaths in the shipbreaking yards. In October 2014, 15 workers were injured in two accidents of an unknown nature.
“A general problem in shipbreaking yards is that yard owners do not take effective measures to minimize casualties. Moreover, workers do not get adequate training to perform the tasks assigned to them. A 2013 fact-finding mission reported that the yard owners provided no PPE such as goggles, masks or gloves, no climbing gear or safety belts, and no proper safety training. Children were seen playing among asbestos and swimming in water with toxic substances. Furthermore, there was no clean drinking water on site. Another report from 2013 corroborated the claim that hazardous waste is not managed in a safe way as well as the lack of safe drinking water, PPE, training and capacity building. Workers labour seven days a week and do not get overtime pay or paid vacations.”
Workers at Gadani may earn as little as $4 a day.
Unsafe working conditions and low wages are not the only problems at Gadini. The environment suffers as well. From the same report:
“As in Chittagong and Alang, shipbreaking negatively impacts the environment. Fishing activities south of Gadani were brought to a stop by pollution from shipbreaking. Marine life has in general decreased as a
result of the shipbreaking industry. According to a 2013 report, oil spills and the release of pollutants constitute a threat to the environment. Moreover, “(p)rovisions for the sound management of hazardous wastes, such as asbestos, PCBs or heavy metals, are non-existent in the Gadani shipbreaking yards”.”
The abuse of workers and the environment at South Asian shipbreaking yards is so well known that dozens of documentary films have been made documenting yard conditions. In July, the blog Marine Insight posted about the Top 10 Documentary Films on Ship Breaking Industry.
Here is a trailer for Iron Slaves (The Underworld of Labor), a documentary about conditions in the Gadani shipbreaking yards.
good article. dangerous work!
Given the magnitude of the blast and the continuing combustion days later, it’s probably safe to conclude that this vessel was delivered with a healthy load of sludge and wax, plenty of volatiles.
So a wave-of-the-wand in some far away office allowed the previous owners to tiptoe away from the scene, leaving what was essentially a time bomb of dodged responsibility towed away to detonate somewhere else, over the horizon and beyond recourse.
Always helpful to remember that this is what a low/no regulation libertarian paradise looks like, outside of fantasy. No, sorry, human nature is not perfectible. We have to be grownups for one another.
Might climb to 100 dead:
Dire safety conditions revealed in wake of Gadani fire as death toll feared to surpass 100
A fire, which has now killed at least 21 people, is still raging at Pakistan’s Gadani ship recycling area with fears the eventual death toll could hit triple figures. An explosion occurred on Tuesday as a welder worked on a gas cylinder in a beached oil tanker. The explosion rapidly became an inferno with many workers trapped in the ship. As well as 21 confirmed deaths, more than 70 people are in hospital with many suffering severe burns while more than 50 workers remain unaccounted for.
http://splash247.com/dire-safety-conditions-revealed-wake-gadani-fire/
Video:
https://youtu.be/WQY7xXukeTg
Fire is out, but the steel is too hot to count the dead inside the ship.
Deadly Gadani fire finally extinguished
http://splash247.com/deadly-gadani-fire-finally-extinguished/
When I sailed for Waterman Steamship, late 70s we scrapped 3 ships in one week in Taiwan. Same deal run the ship up into the beach, (mud) and while we were still getting our gear off Chinese workers with torches were cutting steel. Old ship davits were placed a few feet apart and women passed along large chunks of steel right into a blast furnace. SS Robert Toombs a fine ship and named after a southern signer of the Declaration of Independence.