Jan 9 - Its been a string of unfortunate events down here in Gadani on the Pakastani Coast at the local Ship Yard which decommisions derelict vessels in a somewhat grusome manner; it appears to involve the murder of indigent workers. At todays debacle a mere five workers were killed when an abandoned LPG tanker occupying plot 60 mysteriously caught fire (again) during morning tea. If there was a sign saying X days without a fatality in the yard the sign would have had a 1 on it since a worker was killed just yesterday less dramatically then this particular incident most likely.
I do not want to be the one giving Gadani a black eye here, though, it just sounds like bad luck to me. For instance, back in late October, the final tally appears to be 27 workers died with multiple more injured on MT Aces, an old Japanese oil tanker when it went up in flames as a worker torch cutting randomly through its interior lingered too long on a buried compressed gas cylinder causing a catastrophic explosion. Needless to say its one way to breakdown a ship. There are an endless stream of these incidents most which go unreported or uncared. Like the time a storage tank fell on some workers.
As if wanton murder of poor people wasnt enough, beyond the obvious enviornmental havoc wreaked by these smoldering demolitions, there are innumerable ecological disasters that happen here on the daily including heavy metal leaching, oil spills, pcb contamination, scatter of asbestos, and the list goes on. They really should establish some rules about doing this safely, i mean as long as we can do it without slowing down that steady supply of scrap metal and money into Karachi.