On 24th July an agreement between the IMO and the Norwegian government was signed in order to support phase III of the SENSREC project, including technical assistance for hazardous Waste Management (Treatment, Storage and Disposal) and financial support of approximately $ 1,5 mio.
The SENSREC project for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling in Bangladesh is being jointly implemented by the Bangladeshian Govt. and the IMO and aims at improving standards within the country’s ship recycling industry in order to prepare the adoption and ratification of the IMOs Hong Kong Convention.
The Hong Kong Convention has yet to meet two out of three separate criteria before entering into force 24 months after the criteria have been met (15 states (‘done’), these states have to represent 40% of the world merchant fleet (‘to do’), and a combined annual ship recycling volume of not less than 3% of their combined gross tonnage (‘to do’).
Bangladesh is one the world’s top four ship recycling countries by capacity, alongside India, Pakistan and Turkey. Together these nations account for 98 percent of the market. In order for Bangladesh to sign and improve the required recycling capacity several measures have to be taken to enhance Waste Management infrastructure and national capacity for safe and environmentally sound ship recycling.
The SENSREC project is being implemented in different phases. Phase III of the project (lasting 18 months) follows the successful implementation of Phase I (2015-17) and Phase II (2018 – 2020) that also were mainly funded by Norway.
The Ambassador of Norway to Bangladesh, Ms Sidsel Bleken, said that the SENSREC Project had already achieved significant progress, thanks to the commitment of the Government authorities as well as the ship-recycling industry of Bangladesh, stating that “We hope to see more yards complying with the requirements of the Hong Kong Convention, so that Bangladesh can be ready to accede to the Convention in the soonest possible time.”
