News

Reality Strikes Again at Alang
Ship-Breaking Explosion Kills Six Workers

25 February 2003 - As ten workers are confirmed dead and 5 workers injured in a ship-breaking explosion in Alang, India, Greenpeace today called on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to force ship-owners to clean up ships before sending them to Asia.

Saturday's explosion on Amina, a Greek owned ship happened only two days after the ship arrived at the shipbreaking beach of Alang. Workers told Greenpeace that the explosion was totally unexpected because only minor work had started on the ship.

This confirms that the gas-free for hot works rule has been flouted once again at the cost of human lives. Fires and fatalities are commonplace at shipbreaking yards where workers' safety is jeopardized by a lack of even the most basic precautions; when they're dealing with highly toxic wastes hidden inside dying ships; and when they often come face to face with unexpectedly volatile substances.

In this case, the killer ship was the Greek operated (Chandris) oil tanker Amina that came to Alang just two days before the disaster. The shipowner of the tanker has received 2.66 million dollars [1] for the 30 year old vessel but failed to clean the tankers from hazardous materials and to deliver the tanker gas free for hot works.

Greenpeace had written to Chandris way back in January and May 2002 demanding that they decontaminate the tanker from hazardous materials before export; to make an inventory of any remaining hazardous materials on board; to ensure that their ships will be delivered in a gas-free condition, with tanks cleaned and certified fit for hot works and entry standards. Chandris never responded to the letters.

Under the rules of the Basel Convention and Indian law [2] all vessels should be decontaminated and be made gas free for hot works before import to the country. But Amina concealed a large quantity of oil inside her which caused the explosion while workers were cutting the steel with torchcutters.

Ramapati Kumar, of Greenpeace reports from Alang, "Shipowners and fleet-owning countries do little to fulfill their obligations towards environmentally-sound ship-breaking, and instead export their liabilities to the ship breaking nations. Shipowners do not even want to spend a fraction of their profits on making the ships gas free for hot works, a very simple thing to do. If they would do that hundreds of lives would be saved. But I have seen vast quantities of oil, asbestos, and other toxic materials being hauled out of the skeletons of these old ships. The fatal accidents on the oil tanker Amina clearly indicate that a strong and mandatory framework must be set up by the IMO to make sure that the same rules apply to every ship for scrap."

Greenpeace is demanding:

1. That all ships brought to the Asian shipbreaking yards be thoroughly decontaminated and be made gas-free for hot works and man entry before arrival.
2. That the International Maritime Organisation develops a strong and mandatory framework to make sure that the same rule applies to all ships and that shipowners are held accountable and liable for their End of Life Vessels and any hazardous materials they contain.
3. That Chandris be made liable and asked to compensate the victims of the blast on Amina.
4. That the Basel Convention be strictly adhered to and transboundary movement and disposal of hazardous wastes be regulated as per international law.
5. That the Greek Government, hosting the European Presidency, and the minister of Merchant Marine Mr Giorgos Anomeritis in particular, takes immediately appropriate initiative to secure the above. In any othercase their lack of action should be understood as an effort to avoid responsibility or even to cover up the liabilities of Greek shipowners.

[1] A recent Greenpeace study - The Continuous Evasion of the Polluter Pays Principle - weighs the shipping industry's economic gain from selling ships for scrap against the human and environmental costs of breaking contaminated ships. It concludes that shipping companies earn more than a billion US dollars from selling scrap vessels every year but do not spend a penny on protecting people's health and the environment by cleaning their vessels of hazardous waste and oil residues. Costs of breaking ships borne by workers and people living near ship-breaking yards include loss of livelihood, cleaning up polluted sediments, asbestos exposure liabilities and death or disease by explosions and exposure to toxic substances.

[2] According to the Basel Convention (which India ratified on 24th June 1991) and to national Indian law (Gujarat Government Gazette: No GMB/T/Alang/106/110/2000/1 August 2000) all ships must be thoroughly decontaminated and be free of dangerous gas, toxic or any other hazardous chemical/waste before they are allowed into ship-breaking yards.