The Daily Star editorial board has demanded a wholesale redesign of Bangladesh's ship recycling industry following a tragedy at the Sitakunda shipbreaking yards in Chattogram, headlining its call: "Sitakunda tragedy calls for a redesign of the ship recycling industry."

What hazards does the beaching method expose?

Sitakunda upazila in Chattogram district hosts the country's principal cluster of ship dismantling facilities, drawing end-of-life tonnage and migrant labour to its tidal beach plots. Crews typically cut retired vessels apart directly on the sand, with machinery and oxy-fuel torches operated under monsoon-season conditions.

The dismantling process exposes workers to asbestos lagging, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), heavy metals from machinery, residual bunker fuel oils, and uncontrolled fires when sealed compartments are cut open. Bangladesh remains among the world's top destinations for end-of-life ship tonnage despite years of Basel Secretariat and International Maritime Organization directives to move toward dry-dock or slipway dismantling.

What regulatory framework already applies?

Two international instruments govern the trade. The IMO's Hong Kong International Convention for the Safe and Environmentally Sound Recycling of Ships sets facility-level standards covering hazardous materials inventory, worker safety, and emergency response. Adopted in 2009, the convention waits on combined merchant fleet share and recycling capacity thresholds among ratifying states before it enters into force — a bar that has kept it dormant for more than a decade.

The EU Ship Recycling Regulation, in force since January 2017, requires European-flagged vessels to be dismantled only at yards on the European Commission's approved list. Several Bangladesh yards have applied for inclusion, a process that requires third-party audits and continuous compliance rather than the prevailing yard-by-yard inspection regime. Most applications from South Asian beaching yards have stalled on this hurdle.

What does The Daily Star want changed?

The newspaper's editorial framed the latest Sitakunda incident as symptomatic of a sector absorbing ever-larger end-of-life vessels while worker protection lags. Calls for redesign typically cluster around three tracks:

• Infrastructure shift. Move from tidal beaching to purpose-built hard standing or dry-dock infrastructure capable of capturing wastewater, sludges, and recovered metals before they enter coastal sediment.
• Hazardous materials inventory. Make a complete pre-dismantling hazmat inventory — covering asbestos, PCBs, ozone-depleting substances, heavy metals, and residual fuel oils — a condition of vessel acceptance at the dock, not an after-the-fact audit.
• Liability chain. Extend enforceable liability up the cash-buyer chain so ship owners cannot discharge end-of-life tonnage onto beaches without retained responsibility for downstream disposal, waste handling, and site remediation.

These tracks align with what the Hong Kong Convention and EU regulation already require at facility level; the gap, the editorial argues, is statutory enforceability inside Bangladesh.

What milestone decides what happens next?

The Hong Kong Convention's entry-into-force trigger remains the clearest regulatory deadline for sustained yard upgrades. Once activated, formal facility certification and continuous monitoring become conditions for capturing higher-margin tonnage. Bangladesh's ship recycling zones would need independent verification, audit trails, and wastewater treatment to qualify under the convention's inventory rules.

In the meantime, the EU list renewal cycle sets a faster benchmark Bangladesh operators have historically struggled to satisfy. The Daily Star places the burden on the country's labour inspectorate, port authority, and environment ministry to coordinate enforcement rather than rely on yard-level self-regulation. Until a specific statutory trigger lands, accountability for the next Sitakunda incident remains a question of political will rather than binding rule.