An Assessment of Ship Breaking Yard and Lead Generation on the Coastal Zone of Chittagong, Bangladesh

Abstract

Ship breaking Industry is one of the most economically important and growing industries in the coastal regions of Bangladesh. Bangladesh is the 3rd leading Ship breaking industry in the world. However, ship breaking yards generate solid, gaseous and liquid toxic substances. Among them lead (Pb), which is one of the heavy metal pollutants, has harmful effects over both environment and human health. Lead (Pb) generation is increasing since the numbers of dismantled ships are rising. The objective of this paper is to assess the ship breaking yard in Sitakunda, discussing its present situation and probable future in terms of the number of dismantled ships, and also assessing lead (Pb) concentrations in the ship breaking areas. The study has been carried out using the secondary data obtained from a good number of scholarly journals. It is found that Ship breaking is expected to grow exponentially and with this growth, lead (Pb) generation is also expected to increase