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Bangladesh: Shipbreaking Yard
Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second largest city with a population of 2,5 million, is located in the Bengali Gulf. Because of its harbour, it is the richest region in the country and essentially, the second largest shipbreaking industry after Alang, India. The massive boats are “disembodied” with bare hands by untrained workers, thus spreading in the clean sea of Chittagong cancerous residue, turning the green land into a toxic dumpsite. Tragic irony: 150 kilometers south of Chittagong lies the planet’s biggest natural sandy sea beach and tourist resort Cox’s Bazaar. According to Greenpeace and the FIDH, 20% is under 15 years of age. The highly paid earn a “fat wage” of 3 or 4 euros a day. These are the cutters, the ones who cling to the ship to slice it apart. The average life span of a worker in the «shipyards of death» is roughly 40 years – 20 less than the common resident of Bangladesh. According to Greenpeace, International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) and local's Young Power in Social Action (YPSA), the “death” of one ship results in an average of one injury per day plus one death per week, caused by sudden explosions, fire, suffocation and falling steel plates.Entrance to journalists and photographers is forbidden. For three days I was taking photographs, concealed in a young fisherman’s pirogua that was floating among rusty massive debris. Photographs & article by Maro Kouri
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