KARACHI, Oct 10: Like a gigantic steel whale, 10 stories high and longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, the second-biggest ship ever built sits waiting for destruction on what could be a beautiful Arabian Sea beach.
The new Pakistani owners of 555,000 dwt ultra-large crude carrier Sea Giant are elated and say their biggest shipbreaking project to-date, snatched from under the noses of Chinese rivals, will revitalize their industry and create hundreds of jobs.
But fishermen and international environmentalists are incensed by the beaching of the Sea Giant at Gaddani, seeing it as another example of rich Western business taking advantage of lax Third World standards to dispose of a messy problem on the cheap.
The French-built ship, which used to carry half a million tonnes of crude to the US from Saudi Arabia, arrived recently after the Tasman Spirit disaster.
The government is seeking $1 billion in damages for the oil pollution that disaster caused, but has provided incentives to help bring the Sea Giant, previously owned by Norwegian shipping magnate, John Fredriksen, to Gaddani.
Environmental group Greenpeace is campaigning to raise standards in shipbreaking, saying it releases hazardous pollutants into the environment and endangers workers.
SAFETY PRECAUTIONS: Despite all the hazards of working at height and winching heavy metal plates and huge sections of boiler pipe large enough to accommodate or crush 10 men, the yards appears to observe few safety precautions.
During a visit by Reuters, no workers were seen wearing hard hats, not even men winched 100 feet (35 metres) from the beach to the Sea Giant’s bow on a precariously suspended wooden palette.
Workers recalled an incident in another Gaddani yard in which nine men were killed when a similar winch cable snapped.
The rewards for the risks are poor — Rs60 a day for unskilled labourers and Rs200 for workers using oxy-acetylene torches to cut up tankers.
Wearing only the most basic goggles and ragged oil-stained clothing shredded by sparks, they look like survivors from the darkest days of the industrial revolution.
“It is a tough job, but we are poor people, we have no other choice,” said labourer Jan Bacha, his face blackened with grime, as workers toiled in showers of sparks and clouds of smoke, occasionally tripping over pipes.
Foreman Sajid said there had been no “major” accidents for some time, “but wherever there are people, there are accidents”.
Shahid Patel, sales manager of the firm, which bought Sea Giant for scrap for $25.5 million, says the work is difficult, but his yard has the expertise.
He said the company won the contract thanks to government incentives, including a reduction in duties to 14 per cent from 21 per cent and a slashing of income tax to three per cent from six per cent.
“We hope these measures will revive the industry,” he said, adding that out of the 135 shipbreaking yards at Gaddani only six or seven were active given intense foreign competition.
In its heyday in the 1970s, Gaddani’s yards employed as many as 35,000 workers, but numbers have dwindled to barely 2,000.
Patel rejects concerns by environmentalists, insisting that shipbreaking poses no threat to the beach, sea or workers.
He said ships, including the Sea Giant, were cleaned before arrival and certified free of hazardous gases.
But fishermen a few kilometres down the coast laugh at the suggestion that the yards care about the environment.
They say oil and chemicals from the ships have forced them further offshore in search of fish and have caused stomach, eye and respiratory ailments in their community.
Marietta Harjono, who heads Greenpeace’s shipbreaking campaign, said rich foreign owners should ensure ships were disposed of in an environment-friendly way.—Reuters
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