FW: [ipenlistserve] Press Release: Ex- US toxic ship entry in Indian waters challenged in Supreme Court

[Hemantha Withanage]

 
Subject: [ipenlistserve] Press Release: Ex- US toxic ship entry in Indian waters challenged in Supreme Court

Press Release

Alang beach remains a security concern, 5924 end-of-life ships beached so far

Ex- US toxic ship entry in Indian waters challenged in Supreme Court

New Delhi 27/4/2012: An application has been filed in Supreme Court in the matter of a hazardous end-of-life vessel named 'Oriental Nicety' (formerly Exxon Valdez, Exxon Mediterranean, Sea River Mediterranean, S/R Mediterranean, Mediterranean, and Dong Fang Ocean) which has been purchased by Best Oasis Company, (a subsidiary of Priya Blue Industries Pvt Ltd) in the Indian waters in the name of dismantling and recycling. The minutes of the court constituted Inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on shipbreaking and a sensitive document that has been filed in the court reveal the repeated security concerns which remain unaddressed.

The hazardous wastes/shipbreaking case Writ Petition (Civil) 657/1995 is coming up for hearing on May 3, 2012.

The following are the prayers in the application.

A relevant sensitive document (that is corroborated by recent minutes of IMC's 14th meeting dated February 2012) is
(i) Direct the Union of India to ensure that no end-of-life ship should be allowed without prior decontamination in the country of export as per this Hon’ble Court’s order dated October 14, 2003,

(ii) Direct the Union of India to send back all hazardous wastes laden end-of-life ships entering/ or have entered the Indian territorial waters without prior informed consent and without prior decontamination keeping in view the environmental principles,
(iii) Direct inquiry by an independent trans-disciplinary investigating agency to ascertain the circumstances of the dead US ship’s arrival in Indian territorial waters, to make concerned officials accountable for their acts of omission and commission and seek a detailed report on more than 1200 ships broken in last 5 years and more than 5924 ships broken since 1982;
(iv) Direct Union of India to ensure compliance with the recommendations of the Hon'ble Court constituted Inter-ministerial committee (IMC) on ship-breaking

The illegal traffic of this dead ship must be stopped besides investigating the possibility of fake documents which came to light in the earlier case of Platinum II, a US ship. The Ministry of Environment & Forests has invoked the Precautionary Principle and directed that granting permission for beaching and breaking, purposes of the ship will not be advisable in the case of Platinum II. It may be mentioned that precautionary principle is the basis of UN conventions, such as Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade and Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). India is a signatory to these conventions and has ratified them as well. The ex-Exxon Valdez is violating these international laws besides the court's order.

For Details: Gopal Krishna, ToxicsWatch Alliance (TWA), New Delhi, New Delhi, Phone: +91-11-2651781, Fax: +91-11-26517814, Mb: 9818089660,  

[Hemantha Withanage]

Dear All,

Centre for Environmental and 6 other countries in Asia started a joint project together with the International POPs Elimination  Network (IPEN) to test the lead levels in decorative paint. As you may aware as a result of our initiative and the supreme court case  we were able to obtain the best lead levels in the paint. According to the new standards emulsion and toy paint will have 90ppm and the floor paint and enamel paint will be 600ppm once the law implemented in january 2013. Only Unites States at the moment enjoy similar standards in the world. However, we have found while 70% of the paint come from big companies there are many other small time manufacturers who even adulterate paint from famous companies. Their market share is almost 30%. So we are not sure the quality of these paint. Therefore the project will involve testing all these paint samples including big manufacturers in the coming 3 years. Same time we will do number of media activities to aware the public to eliminate lead in paint.

Miss. Chalani Rubasinghe Environmental Officer of the CEJ will be in-charge of this activity.

Warmly,

Hemantha Withanage, Executive Director

Centre for Environmental Justice/Friends of the Earth Sri Lanka, 

20 A, Kurruppu Road, Colombo 08, Sri Lanka

website: www.ejustice.lk 

Beware of Nuclear Power!

[Hemantha Withanage]

 Dear all,

CEJ has join another project with the International community to test Mercury(Hg) levels in fish as a pilot project. As you may aware UNEP is working for a Mercury Treaty since 2010 and its 4th meeting will be held in Uruguay in June 2012. We are not sure who will represent Sri Lanka.  A regional meeting will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 15 to 17 May 2012. But we learned this very late and they do not have funds for supporting CSOs. 

Under the project we will choose 1-2 water bodies to test Hg levels in Fish.

The recorded level of mercury in the Negombo lagoon in 1996 was <0.02ppm (Silva, 1996). However this is higher than 0.01ppm, the tolerance limit for mercury given by the Central Environmental Authority for discharges in to marine coastal waters or 0.0005ppm, the permissible level for industrial waste discharges in to inland surface waters (National Environmental Regulation, 2008).

 

A high amount of mercury had been recorded in a study on coastal sediments from Mannar. The level of mercury in marshland peaty sediments was indicated as 95ppm while that of sediments from tidal flats of Mannar was 8ppm. It also report in intertidal sediments mercury can exist bound to grain coatings of Fe-Mn-oxides, hydrates and to undecomposed organic matter  (Senrathne & Dissanayaka, 1988).

It is clear that mercury can enter the food chain through soil consuming organisms that end up in edible fish and other animals that consumed by human.

[Chamali Liyanage]

Great !