The world's beaches are in trouble!
Shipbreaking takes place in poor countries, where once pretty beaches in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Turkey are turned into ship graveyards. However, old ships contain hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead paint and PCBs, which are released into the environment. The Rainbow Warrior is in India to visit the shipbreaking yards. Evedien from the Netherlands is on board....
November 14, 2003
Every day a surprise!
I think we are lost in the worst place on earth. When I look outside the boat I only can see dirty water, full of rubbish and floating things. Black smoke above the Alang port and cut and rusty ships as far as the horizon. Today the Belgium campaigner Martin told me about a German company from Hamburg. This company bought two Navy Vessels from the UK, which are full of asbestos and sold them for scrap in India. So, soon all this toxic garbage will be swimming around and the company will earn 2.000.000 euro with this! This place makes me really afraid. Today I saw a butterfly and I was really wondering how she could survive on this terrible place!
In the morning we had discussed how we could give a message for the workers about the toxicity on board the ships who will be scrapped. This is not easy, how to do this. It must be in Hindi, maybe a lot of people can't read. But we had enough ideas how to do this. Maybe we are like the butterflies on this terrible place. In the afternoon we got introductions from Jan, the Dutch toxic-specialist. He told us about the toxic materials in the ships, were we can find them and how to take the samples. This knowledge we will need when we go on the toxic patrols in the next days.
After 5 o'clock, It's time for a beer. Our Indian friend Dilip taught us a lot about the Indian culture, for example how to eat! On the picture you can see me in my first lesson with Dilip. I liked it a lot and am sure: I will carry on the exercise!