Travel report India

Part 2: Toxic fumes and black sand

In Bombay we visit the head of the port authorities. The shipbreaking yards rent their lands from the port authorities. They have to see to it that the yards observe the regulations. Those regulations should prevent that waste, toxic substances and oil are being released into the water. But the inspections are merely paperwork. For each ship-for-scrap the head of the port authorities and the shipbreaker together check the list of conditions. Ships that meet the conditions are allowed to be pulled onto the beach.

We leave for the shipbreaking yards. We drive through narrow streets along small warehouses filled with steel and wood. Then we get to a door in a wall of steel plates. Suddenly we arrive in another world. All kinds of ship wrecks lie on the beach at right angles. Ships with square holes in their hulls and ships from which only the stern is left. The yards are approximately 50 metres wide, marked off by steel plates, gas cylinders and pieces of ship's skin.

We can see how workers cut steel plates from the ship with a large torch cutter. Old shears - there's one at every yard - hoist the steel pieces onto the wharf. Dozens of men twist their bodies in impossible angles to torch cut the steel into little pieces. It's hard physical, dangerous and unhealthy labour. They constantly breath the toxic fumes that are released by the torch cutting. Steel plates and pieces fall off the ships and shears. Yet none of the workers wears a helmet. Only one or two wear gloves or boots.

A woman in an oil-stained sari walks on another ship. We are being told that each shipwreck has two women collecting the small pieces of hot steel waste. All over the place waste is burned in open fires. About 50 men are torch cutting a ship. Some protect their eyes against the steel fragments flying about with sunglasses or an old fashioned pair of goggles. Others put a rag before their mouths and noses against the toxic and stinking fumes that are released in torch cutting.

The shipbreaker comes to us asking what we are doing. We are not allowed to take pictures. In the mean time two men behind us produce a pandemonium row. They cut small pieces of concrete out of a steel plate. They take turns hitting a large chisel with a sledge-hammer. Closer to the waterside we observe an ooze of oil, pieces of driftwood and other waste floating around each shipwreck. While in the port authorities' office we just learned that leakage of oil into the water is strictly forbidden!

A bit further oil is being pumped out of a ship into old oil drums through a tube. The sand around the filled drums has turned black because of the leaked oil. When we cross a few scrap yards we can take a look around the corner. On the water surface there's a thick cake of oil and other pieces of waste. And behind that lies an old ferry of the Italian ship owner Grimaldi Lines. The bow is already cut and it is impossible to recognise the name of the ship. It often happens that names are unrecognisable. But we can still read one name: Fair Spirit. The name seems to be painted on the ship just before its last voyage. Right under the paint we can see its original name: Elbe Olderdorff.

Part 3: A shipbreaker in Bombay