It’s debatable whether the Indian ship that the Iranian authorities have impounded was indeed polluting their waters. But the incident does bring into focus the need to contain pollution
The detention of an Indian vessel, MT Desh Shanti, by Iranian authorities in August over charges of polluting its waters, has once again brought into play a mix of international politics and commerce and its prominence over marine life conservation. The absence of a concerted and swift Indian response to resolve the matter has ensured that the deadlock has transformed into a stalemate.
The vessel belonging to Shipping Corporation of India was carrying nearly 1,40,000 tonnes of crude from Basra, Iraq. The detention of the vessel comes at a time when India, the world’s fourth largest oil importer, has significantly reduced its oil imports from Iran following stringent sanctions from Western nations against the Islamic republic.
Given this scenario, whether the Iranian action stems from their concern for marine life or dwindling oil exports, is a matter of debate. Meanwhile the Government of India should initiate concrete steps to ensure that we as a nation are equally protective of marine life in our territorial waters, if not elsewhere.
The detention of Desh Shanti was on the grounds that the ship was carrying “oily ballast water” which should have been emptied before the ship docked at the port. The ballast water is said to be highly polluting due to the presence of harmful invasive micro-organisms, though this charge is being strongly contested by the Indian authorities.
The problem of invasive species of micro-organisms in ballast water has assumed a position of global threat to the extent that the International Marine Organisation has drafted the International Convention for the Control and Management of Ship Ballast Water & Sediments, that has been ratified by 37 countries so far. India is expected to join the group in the coming months.
The convention, hoping to regulate and record the quality of ballast water being used, could not have been devised at a better time, given the state of affairs in India wherein over the recent years the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has admitted to over 40 vessels having spilled oil off the coast of Mumbai. Virtually no action has been initiated against the offending parties.
Similarly, India allowed ships such as Exxon Valdez from the US to beach at Indian ship-breaking yards in Alang, Gujarat, in spite of the harmful and hazardous waste they carried. For instance, Exxon Valdez carried upto 800kg of asbestos and 29,000kg of glass wool. These wastes are carcinogenicand the process of ship- breaking causes an unimpeded flow of harmful pollutants into the sea.
The fact that the entire environmental community in India fought against these vessels’ entry into India, aided also by the fact that India is a signatory to the anti-dumping Basel Convention, did not help in securing Indian environmental interests, as eventually Exxon Valdez was finally dismantled in Alang. This instance also speaks a lot of the US Government’s ship disposal policy that ignores the Basel Convention.
The current trait of least resistance shown by India towards hazardous vessels and other threats to the fragile marine life needs immediate rectification. This can begin by the strict enforcement of procedures adhered to in transboundary shipping, which includes verification of certificates, inspection of ballast water and its sampling.
The Government should address the laxity in implementation of the International Convention for Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOl, 1973, 1978) to which India is a signatory as well as the plethora of domestic laws and Supreme Court orders. However, the efforts of the Government to emerge as a strong advocate of its environment rights will be hollow as long as it keeps accepting hazardous ships for recycling at yards like Alang.
In 2012 alone, over 527 ships were broken down in Indian yards. With scant regard for environment and human health and a voracious appetite for steel, the ship-owning companies from far and wide are zeroing on India to get rid of their waste.
The Government can turn the dismal picture into an encouraging one by increasing the current six-month lease tenure of the scrap companies that occupy the breaking docks to at least an year so that the companies can invest on improving the infrastructure and, thereby, improve working conditions.
In addition, incentives can be provided to the companies to go green by procuring ISO Environmental Standards. The Government can also pioneer stringent scrap standards for India, thereby, sending out a strong signal regarding its commitment to environment.