Chinese ships visit Chittagong. How it's done, how it works, how it works
The city of Chittatong in Bangladesh is known not only as a major port and administrative center. It also houses a recycling center for end-of-life sea vessels.
Chittagong - graveyard of ships
In South Asia, the tiny area known as the People's Republic of Bangladesh is home to over 160 million people. Bangladesh has long been a dependent country. The British Empire has had a significant impact on the lives of the people of this region for the past few centuries. It was not until 1971 that the independence of Bangladesh was proclaimed.
Chittagong is a city in Bangladesh and a ship recycling center - a “ship graveyard”. Shipbreaking yards stretch along the coast for tens of kilometers. Why are old ships driven here? – This region has favorable climatic conditions, cheap labor, neglect of environmental standards, low requirements for labor protection.
Shipbreaking company owners earn hundreds of millions of dollars. For example, by purchasing a decommissioned ship for $20 million, shipyard owners can make a net profit of $10 million. If you're lucky with world steel prices. Up to 200 ships enter the Chittagong shipyard every year.
The recycling companies are trying to make the most of the ship's illiquid assets brought to Bangladesh. All equipment that can be put in order and used again is removed from ships. The metal parts go to the smelter. Chittagong is Bangladesh's largest steel supplier.
Hazardous working conditions
Dismantling of ships occurs in a primitive way.
After pulling another ship closer to the shore, a team of workers proceeds to remove the equipment, cutting out steel sheets that could be carried ashore by hand.
The working conditions for the workers are so dangerous that there are deaths every month. Injuries, bruises, fractures, loss of fingers and toes occur regularly. During the dismantling of the vessel, a worker may be injured from a fall from a height, a piece of metal that has bounced off, an explosion of a capacitor or a gas cylinder.
Separate settlements have appeared in which cripples live - former shipbreaking workers.
For a shift, an employee receives a few dollars. It is difficult for local residents to find other work due to the tense situation in the labor market. In addition to adult men, children and teenagers work on the dismantling of ships.
Environmental pollution
A serious problem is the environment.
Disposal of end-of-life ships generates a large amount of hazardous waste containing heavy metals, asbestos, glass wool, hydrocarbon mixtures. These hazardous wastes end up in coastal waters and eat into the ground.
During low tides, pieces of scrap metal, coastal sand soaked with toxic waste, are carried away into the ocean. Irreparable harm is caused to the health of workers working without special protective equipment. In addition to Bangladesh, India, China, and Pakistan are engaged in the analysis of ships.
Like everything man-made: vehicles from cars and trucks to planes and locomotives, ships have a lifespan, and when that time runs out, they are scrapped. Such large bulks, of course, contain a lot of metal, and it is extremely cost-effective to gut them and process the metal. Welcome to Chittagong, one of the largest shipbreaking centers in the world. Up to 200,000 people worked here at the same time. Chittagong accounts for half of all steel produced in Bangladesh.
After the Second World War, shipbuilding began to experience an unprecedented rise, great amount metal ships were built all over the world and more and more in developing countries. However, soon the question arose of the disposal of their spent ships. It turned out to be more economical and profitable to disassemble old ships for scrap in poor developing countries, where tens of thousands of low-paid workers dismantled old ships several times cheaper than in Europe.
In addition, such factors as strict health and environmental protection requirements and expensive insurances played an important role. All this made the scrapping of ships in developed European countries disadvantageous. Here, such activities are limited mainly to the disposal of military vessels.
Dismantlement of old ships in developed countries is currently extremely high also because of the high cost: the cost of disposing of toxic substances such as asbestos, PCBs and those containing lead and mercury is often higher than the cost of scrap metal.
The history of the development of the ship recycling center in Chittagong dates back to 1960, when the Greek ship MD-Alpine was thrown onto the sandy coast of Chittagong after a storm. Five years later, after several failed attempts to refloat the MD Alpine, she was scrapped. Then the locals began to dismantle it for scrap.
By the mid-1990s, a large-scale shipbreaking center had developed in Chittagong. This was also due to the fact that in Bangladesh, when dismantling ships, the cost of scrap metal is higher than in any other country.
However, the working conditions at the dismantling of ships were terrible. Here, one worker was killed every week due to labor safety violations. Child labor was mercilessly used.
Eventually, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh imposed minimum safety standards and also banned all activities that do not meet these conditions.
As a result, the number of jobs decreased, the cost of work increased, and the boom in shipbreaking in Chittagong began to decline.
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Like everything man-made: vehicles from cars and trucks to planes and locomotives, ships have a lifespan, and when that time runs out, they are scrapped. Such large bulks, of course, contain a lot of metal, and it is extremely cost-effective to gut them and process the metal. Welcome to Chittagong (Chittagong)- one of the largest shipbreaking centers in the world. Up to 200,000 people worked here at the same time.
Chittagong accounts for half of all steel produced in Bangladesh.
After the Second World War, shipbuilding began to experience an unprecedented rise, a huge number of metal ships were built around the world and more and more in developing countries. However, soon the question arose of the disposal of their spent ships. It turned out to be more economical and profitable to disassemble old ships for scrap in poor developing countries, where tens of thousands of low-paid workers dismantled old ships several times cheaper than in Europe.
In addition, such factors as strict health and environmental protection requirements and expensive insurances played an important role. All this made the scrapping of ships in developed European countries unprofitable. Here, such activities are limited mainly to the disposal of military ships.
Photo 4.
Dismantlement of old ships in developed countries is currently extremely high also because of the high cost: the cost of disposing of toxic substances such as asbestos, PCBs and those containing lead and mercury is often higher than the cost of scrap metal.
Photo 5.
The history of the development of the ship recycling center in Chittagong dates back to 1960, when the Greek ship MD-Alpine was thrown onto the sandy coast of Chittagong after a storm. Five years later, after several failed attempts to refloat the MD Alpine, she was scrapped. Then the locals began to dismantle it for scrap.
By the mid-1990s, a large-scale shipbreaking center had developed in Chittagong. This was also due to the fact that in Bangladesh, when dismantling ships, the cost of scrap metal is higher than in any other country.
However, the working conditions at the dismantling of ships were terrible. Here, one worker was killed every week due to labor safety violations. Child labor was mercilessly used.
Eventually, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh imposed minimum safety standards and also banned all activities that do not meet these conditions.
As a result, the number of jobs decreased, the cost of work increased, and the boom in shipbreaking in Chittagong began to decline.
In Bangladesh, Chittagong disposes of about 50% of the world's ships decommissioned for scrap. 3-5 ships come here every week. About 80,000 people disassemble the ships themselves, and another 300,000 work in related industries. The daily salary of workers is 1.5-3 dollars (with work week- 6 days for 12-14 hours), and Chittagong itself is considered one of the dirtiest places in the world.
Decommissioned ships began to come here in 1969. To our time, 180-250 ships are dismantled in Chittagong annually. The coastline, where ships find their last refuge, stretches for 20 kilometers.
Their disposal takes place in the most primitive way - with the help of autogenous and manual labor. Of the 80 thousand local workers, about 10 thousand are children from 10 to 14 years old. They are the lowest paid workers, earning an average of $1.5 a day.
Every year, about 50 people die on the dismantling of ships, and about 300-400 more become crippled.
80% of this business is controlled by American, German and Scandinavian companies - scrap metal is then sent to these countries. In monetary terms, the dismantling of ships in Chittagong is estimated at 1-1.2 billion dollars a year, in Bangladesh, in the form of salaries, taxes and bribes to local officials, this amount remains 250-300 million dollars.
Chittagong is one of the dirtiest places in the world. During the dismantling of ships, engine oils are poured directly onto the shore, and lead waste remains there - for example, the MPC for lead is exceeded here by 320 times, the MPC for asbestos is 120 times higher.
The shacks in which the workers and their families live stretch 8-10 km inland. The area of this "city" is about 120 square kilometers, and up to 1.5 million people live in it.
Photo 12.
The port city of Chittagong lies 264 km southeast of Dhaka, about 19 km from the mouth of the Karnaphuli River.
This is the second largest locality Bangladesh and its most famous tourist center. The reason for this is the favorable location of the city between the sea and mountainous areas, a good sea coast with an abundance of islands and shoals, a large number of ancient monasteries of several cultures at once, as well as many original hill tribes inhabiting the areas of the famous hills of Chittagong. And the city itself in its history (and it was founded approximately at the turn of a new era) has experienced many interesting and dramatic events, therefore it is famous for its characteristic mixture of architectural styles and different cultures.
The main decoration of Chittagong is the old district lying along the northern bank of the river. Sadarghat. Born along with the city itself somewhere at the turn of the millennium, since ancient times it has been inhabited by wealthy merchants and ship captains, therefore, with the advent of the Portuguese, who for almost four centuries controlled all trade on the western coast of the Malacca Peninsula, the Portuguese enclave of Paterghatta grew up here, built up rich for those times villas and mansions. By the way, this is one of the few districts in the country that has still preserved Christianity.
Now in the old part of the city, the Shakhi-Jama-e-Masjid mosque (1666), the mosques of Kvadam-Mubarak (1719) and Chandanpur (XVII-XVIII centuries), the shrines of Dargah-Sah-Amanat and Bayazid Bostami in the heart of the city (there is a large pool with hundreds of turtles believed to be the descendants of the evil genie), the Bada Shah mausoleum, the majestic court complex (17th century) on Fairy Hill, and many old mansions of all styles and sizes. Many of them are far from being in the best condition, but by and large this only adds color to them. It is also worth visiting the Ethnological Museum in the modern area of Modern City, which has interesting expositions telling about the tribes and peoples of Bangladesh, the Memorial Cemetery of the Victims of World War II, the picturesque Foy Reservoir (approximately 8 km from the city center, locals call it a lake, although it formed during the construction of a railway dam in 1924), as well as Pateng Beach.
Beautiful view of the city opens from the hills Fairy Hill and the British City area. In addition, here, which is important in the conditions of constant local heat, cool sea breezes constantly blow, which makes the area a popular residence for wealthy residents of the city. However, most tourists stay in the city for literally one day, since the main point of attraction is still the hilly areas east of Chittagong.
The Chittagong Hills region includes large area(an area of about 13,191 sq. km) of wooded hills, picturesque gorges and cliffs, overgrown with a dense cover of the jungle, bamboo, loach and wild grapes, and inhabited by hill tribes with their own original culture and way of life. This is one of the rainiest regions of South Asia - up to 2900 mm of precipitation falls here annually, and this is at an average annual air temperature of about +26 C! The region includes four main valleys, formed by the Karnaphuli, Feni, Sanggu and Matamuhur rivers (however, each river has two or three names here). This is an atypical area of Bangladesh in terms of topography and culture, where mainly Buddhist tribes live and the population density is relatively low, which has kept the natural environment of the region in a relatively untouched state.
Oddly enough, the hills of Chittagong are the most turbulent region in the country and therefore visits to many areas are limited (without special permits valid for 10-14 days, only Rangamati and Kaptai districts can be visited).
Photo 16.
Here is what they write about the working conditions in this place:
“...Using only blowtorches, sledgehammers and wedges, they cut out huge pieces of skin. After these fragments break in water like broken pieces of a glacier, they are dragged ashore and cut into small pieces weighing hundreds of pounds. They are carried onto trucks by teams of workers singing rhythmic songs, as carrying the very heavy, thick steel plates requires perfect coordination. The metal will be sold at a huge profit to the owners who live in luxurious mansions in the city. ... The cutting of the ship continues from 7:00 to 23:00 with one team of workers with two half-hour breaks, and an hour for breakfast (they have dinner after they return home at 23:00). Total - 14 hours a day, 6-1 / 2 day work week (half day on Friday is free, according to the requirements of Islam). Workers are paid $1.25 a day"
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Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
Scrapping of old ships in Chittagong (Bangladesh).
source http://masterok.livejournal.com/3779217.html
Residents of Bangladesh, in search of earnings, do not disdain the most dangerous occupation - the analysis of ships that have served their time.
I was immediately given to understand that it would not be easy to get into the place where they are dismantling ships. “Tourists used to be brought here,” says one of the local residents. “They were shown how people practically disassemble multi-ton structures with their bare hands. But now there is no way for us to come here.” I walked a couple of kilometers along the road that runs along the Bay of Bengal north from the city of Chittagong to a place where 80 shipbreaking yards are located on a 12-kilometer stretch of coastline. Each is hidden behind a high fence covered with barbed wire, there are security guards everywhere and signs prohibiting photography. Strangers are not welcome here.
In the evening I hired a fishing boat and decided to make a trip to one of the shipyards. Thanks to the tide, we scurried effortlessly between huge oil tankers and container ships, sheltering in the shadows of their gigantic pipes and hulls. Some of the ships were still intact, others were skeletons, stripped of their steel hulls to reveal the insides of deep, dark holds. Marine giants serve an average of 25-30 years, most of those delivered for recycling were launched in the 1980s. Now that the increased cost of insurance and maintenance has made old ships unprofitable, their value lies in the steel of their hulls. We arrived here at the end of the day, when the workers had already gone home, and the ships rested in silence, occasionally disturbed by the splash of water and the tinkle of metal coming from their bellies. The air smelled of sea water and oil. Making our way along one of the ships, we heard ringing laughter and soon saw a group of boys. They floundered around the half-submerged metal skeleton, climbing on it and diving into the water. Nearby, fishermen set up nets in the hope of a good catch of rice fish, a local delicacy. Suddenly, quite close to a height of several floors, a sheaf of sparks fell. “You can't come here! a worker shouted from above. - What, tired of living?
Ocean-going vessels are built to last
service in extreme conditions. No one thinks that sooner or later they will have to be taken to pieces, many of which will contain toxic materials like asbestos and lead. Dismantling of ships in developed countries is highly regulated and very expensive, so this dirty work is done mainly by Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. The labor force here is very cheap, and there is almost no control whatsoever. True, the situation in the industry is gradually improving, but the process is very protracted. For example, India has finally introduced new requirements for the safety of workers and the environment. However, in Bangladesh, where as many as 194 ships were broken up last year, the work remains very dangerous. Along with this, he brings in a lot of money. Activists say that in three to four months, investing about five million dollars in the dismantling of one ship at a shipyard in Bangladesh, you can get up to a million in profit on average. Jafar Alam, the former head of the association of shipbreaking companies in Bangladesh, disagrees with these figures: "It all depends on the class of the ship and on many other factors, such as current steel prices." Whatever the profit, it cannot arise from scratch: more than 90% of materials and equipment acquire a second life. The process begins with the purchase of a ship by a shipbuilder from an international broker that sells used ships.
To deliver the ship to the place of dismantling, the company hires a captain who specializes in "parking" huge ships on a strip of beach a hundred meters wide. After the ship gets stuck in the coastal sand, all liquids are drained from it and sold: the remains of diesel fuel, engine oil and fire-fighting substances. Then the mechanisms and internal equipment are removed from it. Everything is on sale, without exception, from huge engines, batteries and kilometers of copper wiring, ending with the bunks on which the crew slept, portholes, lifeboats and electronic devices from the captain's bridge. Then the devastated building is surrounded by workers who have come to work from the poorest regions of the country. First, they dismember the ship with acetylene cutters. Then the loaders drag the fragments to the shore: the steel will be melted down and sold - it will be used in the construction of buildings. “Good business, you say? But just think about chemicals poisoning our land! Mohammed Ali Shaheen, an activist with the NGO Shipbreaking Platform, is outraged. “You have not yet seen young widows whose husbands died under broken structures or suffocated in the holds.” For 11 of his 37 years, Shaheen has been trying to draw public attention to the hard labor of shipyard workers. The entire industry, he says, is controlled by several powerful families from Chittagong, who also own a related business, in particular metal smelting. Shaheen is well aware that his country is in dire need of jobs. “I am not demanding a complete halt to ship recycling,” he says. “We just need to create normal working conditions.”
Shahin is convinced that not only unprincipled compatriots are to blame for the current situation. “Who in the West will allow polluting environment in the open, sorting out ships right on the beach? Then why is it considered normal to get rid of ships that have become unnecessary here, paying a penny and constantly endangering the life and health of people? he is indignant. Having gone to the nearby barracks, I saw the workers, for whom Shakhin was so offended. Their bodies are covered with deep scars, which are called "Chittagong tattoos" here. Some men are missing fingers. In one of the huts I met a family in which four sons worked at the shipyard. The eldest, 40-year-old Mahabab, once witnessed the death of a man: a fire broke out in the hold from a cutter. “I didn’t even come to this shipyard for money, afraid that they wouldn’t let me go just like that,” he said. “The hosts don’t like to take dirty linen out of the hut.” Mahabab shows a photograph on the shelf: “This is my brother Jahangir. He was engaged in metal cutting at the shipyard near Ziri Subedar, where he died in 2008. Together with other workers, the brother unsuccessfully tried for three days to separate a large section from the ship's hull. Then it began to rain, and the workers decided to take shelter under it. At this point, the structure could not stand it and came off. The third brother, 22-year-old Alamgir, is not at home now. While working on a tanker, he fell into a hatch and flew 25 meters. Fortunately for him, water accumulated at the bottom of the hold, it softened the blow from the fall. Alamgir's partner went down on a rope and pulled him out of the hold. The very next day, Alamgir quit his job, and now he delivers tea to shipyard managers in the office. The younger brother Amir works as a worker's assistant and also cuts metal. He is a wiry 18-year-old with no scars yet on his smooth skin. I asked Amir if he was afraid to work, knowing what had happened to his brothers. "Yes," he replied with a shy smile. Suddenly, during our conversation, the roof trembled with a roar. There was a sound like thunder. I looked out into the street. “Ah, it was a piece of metal that fell off the ship,” Amir said indifferently. “We hear this every day.”
Chittagong (Bangladesh) is one of the most major centers for the recycling of ships in the world. Not surprising. In Bangladesh, they wanted to spit on environmental standards. The level of wages here is one of the lowest in the world. In this country, there are practically no standards for labor protection.
According to various estimates, from 30 to 50 thousand people are directly employed in the "cutting up" of ships that have worked out their resources. About 100 thousand more people are indirectly related to this area.
A worker earns about $1-3 per day depending on the type of work. Dismantling ships is a very dangerous and unhealthy job. Workers have to work with asbestos, which was used as an insulating material on old ships, as well as with paint that contains compounds of lead, cadmium and arsenic. Imagine, before, 7-8 tons of asbestos were used to insulate a large-tonnage ship, and 10-100 tons of lead paint were used to paint it. It is not uncommon for workers to die from gas poisoning or as a result of explosions and fires. Often, workers die from falling steel beams, fragments of the ship's hull. Over the past 30 years, 1000-2000 workers have died from accidents. Thousands of workers were seriously injured.
Here are photos of Jan Møller Hansen who visited Chittagong in February 2012.
Most of the world's ships end their lives in South Asia.
Chittagong, the second largest city in Bangladesh, is one of the main centers for the dismantling of large ships.
The dismantling sites cover approximately ten to twenty kilometers of flat sandy shore.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Decommissioned ships began arriving in Chittagong in 1969. To our time, 180-250 ships are dismantled in Chittagong annually.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The demolition work is carried out almost entirely with bare hands under extremely difficult conditions.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Thousands of people are manually dismantling metal enclosures, pulling out cables and removing rivets.
Most of this material is recycled into structural steel.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Using only an autogen, sledgehammers and wedges, workers cut out huge pieces of skin. After these fragments break in water like broken pieces of a glacier, they are dragged ashore and cut into small pieces weighing hundreds of pounds.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The cutting of the ship continues from 7:00 to 23:00 by one team of workers with two half-hour breaks, and an hour for breakfast (they have dinner after they return home at 23:00). Total - 14 hours a day, 6-1 / 2 day work week (half day on Friday is free, according to the requirements of Islam).
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The metal will be sold at a huge profit to the owners who live in luxurious mansions in the city.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Giant ships are dismantled almost by hand. Of the tools - hammers, wedges, autogen.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Screw.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Chittagong is one of the dirtiest places in the world. When dismantling ships, machine oils are poured directly onto the shore, and lead waste remains there - for example, the maximum permissible concentration (MPC) for lead is exceeded here by 320 times, and the MPC for asbestos is 120 times higher.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
80% of the shipbreaking business in Chittagong is controlled by American, German and Scandinavian companies - the scrap metal is then sent to these countries.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
In monetary terms, the dismantling of ships in Chittagong is estimated at 1-1.2 billion dollars a year, in Bangladesh, in the form of salaries, taxes and bribes to local officials, this amount remains 250-300 million dollars.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Sunset in the Bay of Bengal.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Colossus.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The ship graveyard in Chittagong is a restricted area for photographers. The truth about Chittagong negatively affects the image of the country and the authorities.
Pictured: A worker.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
In Chittagong, about 30,000 to 50,000 people work on shipbreaking. About 20% of them are children, whose age is 10-14 years. They are the lowest paid workers, earning an average of $1.5 a day.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Underage worker
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Dozens of Soviet ships after the collapse Soviet Union were dismantled in Chittagong.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The shacks, in which the working cemeteries of ships and their families live, stretch 8-10 km inland. The area of this "city" is about 120 square kilometers, and up to 1.5 million people live in it.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The working day in Chittagong came to an end.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
The dismantling of ships is carried out by children, women and the elderly.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
Underage Chittagong worker.
Photo: Jan Moller Hansen
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