Greenpeace
has challenged European Union ministers to ensure that decommissioned tankers
will be safely processed by skilled professionals, and not dumped on
poverty-stricken Asian communities. The environmental group presented transport
ministers at the Transport Council meeting in Luxembourg yesterday (Thursday
April 21st) with a ‘message in a bottle’, containing remnants from a Greek
vessel (‘Amina’) that exploded at a ship-breaking yard in India – killing
nine people. The incident is symptomatic of the under-skilled way in which many
hundreds of dangerous ships are taken to Asia for cheap dismantling."These chunks of rusty metal symbolise the lives lost and the environmental pollution caused by sending old ships to Asia for scrap without first cleaning them of hazardous substances. It's now two weeks since the global ban on single hull oil tankers came into force but EU transport ministers and the European Commission have still given no guarantee that these toxic ships will be scrapped safely and cleanly," commented Marietta Harjono, toxics campaigner at Greenpeace International.
Around 2000 tankers are expected to be decommissioned by the end of the decade according to analysis by Greenpeace, following the introduction of the worldwide ban on single hull vessels.
"Unless action is taken, a successful piece of legislation will lead to terrible consequences - the toxic burden of Europe's single hulled tankers will end up on Asian beaches, threatening a human and environmental catastrophe" added Marietta.
