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by Shirish Nadkarni, Lloyd's List

The Basle Convention bans the export of toxic materials such as heavy metals and asbestos to developing countries, which do not have the specialised facilities to dispose of them safely.

At Greenpeace's instance, a court in Antwerp recently arrested a vessel which was on the point of being sent to India for scrapping, but subsequently released her when the owner said he would withdraw the plan to scrap her.

"This development would mean that the supply of ships for the breaking yards at Alang and Mumbai will start to dry up," lamented Pravin Nagarseth, president of the Iron, Steelscrap and Shipbreakers' Association of India (Issai).

"Since this would affect the livelihood of nearly 40,000 workers at Alang, and another 1,500 in Mumbai, we would have no alternative but to contest the decision of the Antwerp court.

"As it is, the supply of tankers into India for scrapping has dried up, after new and stringent laws were imposed in 1998."

Mr Nagarseth said that the Antwerp court decision should initially be contested by European shipowners and the International Chamber of Shipping; and promised that the Indian shipbreaking industry would join the contest.

"Leading shipbreaking nations like India, Pakistan, China and Bangladesh will all be affected if the Greenpeace move succeeds," he said. "It would spell the death knell of the industry. It must be seen in perspective, that the so-called toxic or hazardous waste in a ship meant for scrapping is a tiny percentage of the total."

The consternation in the ship demolition industry in India has come at a time when the Rainbow Warrior, a vessel deployed by Greenpeace for a round-the-world voyage to spread its message of concern for the environment, recently berthed in Chennai port.

Senior Greenpeace officials, including its New Delhi- based representative, Nityanand Jayaraman, made a visit to India's twelfth and youngest major port Ennore, about 100 km from Chennai; and promptly declared Ennore to be in a "toxic zone".

The port is to be primarily used for bringing in coal from India's eastern coastal ports of Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam, for the use of power plants connected with the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

The Ennore imbroglio apart, Greenpeace has been going hammer-and-tongs at the shipbreaking industry itself, calling it a "toxic trade" in disguise.

It feels these ships are broken up in developing countries in improper labour and environmental conditions.

"The export of ships for scrap is nothing but a loophole to dump toxic wastes in developing countries; and we intend to plug this loophole," said Mr Jayaraman.

"Asbestos handling and flame-torch cutting are the two most significant areas of concern for us.

"There are also several poisonous chemicals and materials like polychlorinated biphenyls.

"In any case, our goal is to ensure that ships are decontaminated prior to their export to Asian destinations."

Ironically, the environmental group's major enemy, asbestos, which is mainly used as a heat insulator on ship engines, is actually a highly desired product in India, and commands a price at the shipbreaking yards.

"Dealers pay us Rs5 [11¢] per kilo, and insist that we do not pack it for them," said Shiv Gupta, who owns a plot at Alang, on the Gujarat coastline, acknowledged as the world's largest ship- scrapping yard.

"They prefer to scrape it off themselves, so that they can retain as much of its purity as possible."

Greenpeace advocates the proper disposal of ships with methods that do not endanger the health of workers, nor place the environment at risk.

Asian yards, however, have low safety and environment standards.

Concerns additionally highlighted in this context are abysmal working conditions, poor remuneration for the predominantly migrant workers, and indifferent safety controls which result in frequent accidents.

"These concerns themselves are so serious that the acute and medium- to long-term impact upon the health of the workers and local residents has hardly been highlighted," said Mr Jayaraman.

"We have been able to determine that at least 5,000 of the 40,000 labourers who work in Alang could contract cancer because of unprotected handling of asbestos and other toxic substances, as well as prolonged exposure to noxious fumes in their workplace."

Mr Jayaraman insists that Greenpeace is not against the shipbreaking industry in India or elsewhere in Asia, since it provides useful employment and also makes available large quantities of re- rollable and melting scrap, non-ferrous metals and salvageable material.

"However, we do want shipowners and operators, who are generally from the rich developed western nations, to foot the bill, rather than loading the cost in terms of money and health onto the poorer nations," he went on to point out.

During the financial year 1998/99, ended March 31, 1999, as much as 3.3m light displacement tonnage (ldt), which constituted a new record, was scrapped at Alang alone.

There was a lull in shipbreaking activity at the beginning of the current fiscal year which has caused the scrapped tonnage between April and December 1999 to be a shade above 2m ldt.

Shipbreakers are, however, confident of making up the leeway in the remaining three months of the current financial year if environmental agencies such as Greenpeace actually leave them to work in peace.