Dhaka sues polluting shipyards

Bangladesh’s government has sued four of the country’s ship-breaking yards for causing “excessive pollution” and operating without proper licences, an environment department official said yesterday. The move follows an about-face earlier this month when the government abandoned its attempt to impose stricter environmental standards on ship-breakers after months of strikes devastated the country’s steel industry.
Ships heading for Bangladesh routinely contain chemicals like asbestos, banned in many countries, but the nation relies on recycled steel from ships for construction and manufacturing.
The lawsuit lodged on Wednesday against the four yards — of 100 operating on the country’s southwest coastline — claims they have not followed a March 2009 government directive on environmental standards, Abdus Sobhan said.
“These ship-breaking yards did not apply for environmental clearance and they are causing excessive pollution,” he said, adding that this was the first time the government has sued ship yards for polluting.
Bangladesh’s yards frequently lack any facilities to remove hazardous waste from old ships and the government has only recently begun attempting to regulate the industry.  “Failure to apply for a clearance certificate and causing excessive pollution can mean either a 1mn taka fine or 10 years of jail or both,” Sobhan said.