The IMO and the government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh are jointly implementing a project entitled “Safe and Environmentally Sound Ship Recycling in Bangladesh – Phase I” (in short SENSREC Project – Bangladesh).
- Two studies assessing the economic and environmental impact of the ship recycling industry in Bangladesh;
- An assessment of the prevailing conditions and needs for environmentally sound hazardous waste management, including the compilation of a hazardous waste inventory, hazardous waste assessment report and the preliminary infrastructure design and site selection for a hazardous waste storage, treatment and disposal facility;
- Recommendations on strengthening the government’s one-stop service, in which all the various ministries with a responsibility for ship recycling (e.g. industries, environment, labor, shipping) offer a single point of contact for related matters;
- A review and upgrade of existing training courses on occupational health, safety and environmental issues and piloting of the new training material; and
- The development of a detailed project document for a possible follow-up project to implement the recommendations of phase I.
In the long term, the project will assist the industry to eventually meet the requirements of the Hong Kong International Convention on the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships, 2009 (the Hong Kong Convention), so that the government of Bangladesh may be in a position to accede to the Convention.
The principal funding for the project comes from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), while the Secretariat of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions (BRS) also supports the project having mobilized some EU funding towards the work package related to the management of hazardous materials, which is partly being implemented by BRS.
The project is expected to be managed within a budget of $1,516,275 commencing January 2015 (phase I) for a period of 18 months. This amount includes the BRS funds of $273,603.
The project is being executed by the Marine Environment Division of IMO, in partnership with the Ministry of Industries of Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi Ministry coordinates the input from the different stakeholder ministries within the country, while IMO also collaborates with other relevant UN agencies including BRS, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) to ensure the successful delivery of the project.
IMO, the government of Bangladesh, Norad, and BRS have been working towards the establishment of this project for a number of years. It demonstrates a major commitment from the government of Bangladesh to improve safety and environmental standards within this vital industry, said IMO in a statement.