A ship recycling worker lost his life, while three more were injured after an explosion in Sitakunda, Bangladesh.
Namely, the incident took place an SN Corp facility on June 19, when a boiler on a vessel exploded, local media reported.
Because of the blast, on worker died, while at least three got injured, suffering burns. The injured workers are currently undergoing treatment at Chattogram Medical College Hospital, and they in critical condition.
In another similar incident this month, Pakistani authorities have suspended dismantling operations of the Floating Storage and Offloading (FSO) tanker J. NAT in Gadani, over concerns of mercury-contaminated oil sludge onboard which injured several shibreaking workers.
The ship has been beached on the shipbreaking shores of Gadani, Pakistan despite clear warnings by Interpol and international civil society groups that it contains high levels of toxics, NGO Shipbreaking Platform informed.
What is more, in its latest quarterly publication, the NGO Shipbreaking Platform informs that at least five workers died while dismantling ships at shipbreaking yards in Bangladesh in the final quarter of 2020. Moreover, two workers lost their lives while dismantling two different vessels.
Overall, in 2020, at least four accidents were reported at shipbreaking yards owned by Kabir Steel group. In total, 170 ships were broken in the third quarter of 2020. Of these, 65% were sold to the beaches of South Asia, the report notes.
In these yards, poor work safety practices are often the main cause of incidents that take place in South Asia.