Travel report India

Part 3: A shipbreaker in Bombay

Today we have an appointment with a shipbreaker. We will meet in a private club just outside the centre of Bombay. When he arrives the man quickly gets down to business. In fact he represents all shipbreakers in Alang. They are fed up with the ongoing environmental damage that puts Alang in a bad light.

It becomes very clear that this man knows the entire shipbreaking world inside out. Easily he calls the names of ship owners, shipbrokers, countries and politicians with interests in this sector. We find out that a port in the United Arab Emirates is in fact a host town to ships on their way to scrap yards but not yet sold to a shipbreaker.

For the shipbreaker there can be no two ways about it: it's the ship owners that cause the pollution. After all they dump their ships on the Indian beaches. The situation there can only be improved if the ship owners accept their responsibility. The shipbreaker is convinced that no yard owner will now invest in safe methods of disposing toxic substances. He thinks that's because of the short supply of ships for scrap. That sends prices up, so that ship owners make more money and shipbreakers make less.

He sees one solution as long as the supply stays short. Ship owners must pay a waste disposal fee when buying a ship. Just like the owners of cars and refrigerators in Europe. The fee includes a guarantee that the ship eventually will be safely scrapped. But he honestly admits that such a measure seems unfeasible at this moment. He expects shipbreakers and ship owners to go on declaring the other party responsible for the environmental damage.

Greenpeace thinks ships for scrap are toxic waste. Ship owners should take care that their toxic substances don't end up in Asia. But as long as they willingly refuse this responsibility, the pollution of the Asian beaches should be taken care off.

Part 4: Pipavav, a modern scrap yard waiting for orders