FUNERAL OF THE SEA GIANT VESSEL & GADDANI’S ENVIRONMENTAL HAVOC

By Aftab Ahmed Baloch

It was the second largest ‘floating sea object’ after Jahre Viking…, built by French.., once used to carry half a million tons of crude oil from the waters of Saudi Arabia to United States!…., with a mind blowing weight of 555,000-tonns!, longer than the Eiffel Tower (about 1400 ft), higher than a 10 story building!…, wider than a Tennis Court…. As we heard the news of her arrival that she is being dragged to Gaddani (the second largest ships graveyard in Asia) for her final doom, so we had decided to reach at any cost from Karachi. At first, we were quite mesmerized by the enormous size of the ship, as ever built by human being. The scrapping process of the ship had already taken place, when we reached there, the outer shell of the ship along with the first tank had already been slashed down, yet the horizontal expansion was still enough to scare us, which is presenting the view of a gigantic castle or a giant wall, but it is true that the death of giant tanker had brought jobs for daily workers. There were noises of cranes, welding machines, vehicles movement. We were asked to be careful at sight, as any piece of iron could crash us. According to the news source, the ship was obtained by M/S Usman Enterprises as a ‘scrap for’ US$25.5 million by winning the contract. Infact, we visited there on Sunday, but the cropping job was still on boom, workers/labors were engaged in dismantling process through gas cutters, cranes etc. The security Incharge allowed us to roam at the site at our own risk, every where there were pieces of iron sheets, rusty pipes & junks, the sand was covered with residual oil and a pungent gassy smell was also noticed us, yet the magic of Sea Giant had overcome all troubles & fears. Other plots, apart from the sight of Sea Giant, were showing the worst picture of environment. Several dead fishes, wooden leftovers of ships were scattered all over the shore showing the lack of proper cleaning & maintenance. The labors were engaged without any safety measures & protectors like without wearing safety helmets, special clothes, goggles or gloves etc, seems like worker’s safety is clearly not the ‘top priority’ job at Gaddani. Various organizations & worker’s association had shown their concern over meager safety measures for workers & threat to environment but of no use.

Some Baloch dwellers, unaware of the devastating environment, were busy in fishing, hanging on a slashed deck of a rusty ship. Upon enquiry, one of the person, spoke that emitting oil and gassy chemicals from the ships have forced them further offshore in search of fish and have also caused stomach, eye and respiratory troubles, he also explained that at night there is no street lights, because the government or the owners of the ship-breaking industry have no interest, they don’t care about labor’s rights, except earning money…. An out-dated Oil Rack was also there, waiting for his final fate…, the sun was just setting in the middle of oil rack which was suddenly captured by me. When we were walking outside the ship’s graveyard towards the darkening road, the Titanic’s favorite song echoed in my imagination: “My Heart goes on…..

For interest of the readers: Presently the world’s largest Oil Cargo or King of the Tankers is Jahre Viking, having a length of 1,503 feet long with 226 feet wide!, claiming the tonnage of 565,000! The second largest is China’s Emma Maersk, carries a length of 1302 ft, and 207 ft wide. All these ships are unable to negotiate with Panama or Suez canal. The current largest passenger ship is the Queen Mary II, having a length of 1132 ft & width of 134 feet, while Voyager of the Seas and the Explorer of the Seas, both are 1,020 feet long and 158 feet wide!, with a tonnage of 140,000 and carry roughly 3,000 passengers with crew, run by Royal Caribbean International Cruises.

Oasis of the seas is another entry into the passenger line ship, having a length: 1181 ft, and 154 ft wide, claiming a capacity of 5400 passengers!!

The legendary Titanic, was not popularized until after the incident & its movie by James Cameron . It was only about 883 feet long, 93 feet wide, and weighed 45,000 tons, with the facilities of a squash court, swimming pool, and a gymnasium. She could hold 3,500 passengers with crews but life boats were too short roughly for 1,000 passengers i.e. why worst kind of catastrophe had happened. It was claimed that ‘Not even God could sink that ship’ but what had happened….It was sink in its very first trip. In future there is also planning to build aFreedom Ship (a floating city), the ever largest passenger vessel. It has a proposed length of 4,500 feet!, with a width of 750 feet, and a height of 350 feet, if built it would be more than 4 times longer than the Queen Mary II.

Ending Note: The Gaddani could be the fantastic visiting place for public too, as now & then ships are brought here for scrapping purpose like famous Sea Giant or Lady Diana’s Royal ships were brought for final doom. But perhaps mean money earners industrialists has no time for such stupid thinking, except making quick money.

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