A comprehensive industrial safety framework for dangerous chemicals needs to be established by covering the whole value chain- including production, transportation, storage, shipment and delivery, said the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
Moreover, necessary amendments to rules related to the handling of these chemicals concerning all stages of the value chain need to be undertaken.
According to the speakers at the event, due to regional and global demand, Bangladesh will gradually become the centre of industrialization in the future.
Bangladesh has already established a number of economic and industrial zones which will play a major role in industrialization.
Moreover, Bangladesh will also graduate from LDC in the coming years and ensuring safety and enhancing the quality of life of the workers should be prioritized.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the CPD, presented the study on Industrial safety concerning chemical and hazardous products supply chain: “What lessons we learned from Chittagong ICD blast?” conducted by the think tank.
He recommended regular inspection of the authorities concerned, including the National Board of Revenue, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, the Department of Environment and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, needs to be strengthened.
He also said that laws, rules, regulations and guidelines are either unclear or non-specified in case of dealing with hazardous chemicals.
“Monitoring and oversight institutions concerning the industrial safety related to dangerous chemicals need to revise their inspection protocol including necessary provisions,” he added.
He also said that the concerned authorities appear to bypass their due diligence in ensuring compliance which caused the increasing risks in the hazardous chemicals’ international trade.
“A detailed operational protocol needs to be designed for the hazardous chemicals supply chain which needs to be maintained,” he added.
Moreover, a central authority needs to monitor the effective functioning of the laws, protocol and other related compliances.
“The safety protocol maintained by CPA with regard to hazardous chemicals seems to be inadequate. Chittagong port itself is not yet ready to handle dangerous goods,” he added.
According to the study of the CPD, he said that most ICDs are found with different levels of non-compliance. These are related to operational without renewal of licenses, depots having diesel pumps and lack of fire hydrant facilities to name a few.
The study also said that under the new policy, ICDs need to be established beyond a 20km radius of Chittagong city. In that consideration, most of the existing ICDs need to be relocated to new places following the criteria.
According to the SMI 2017, a total of 251 enterprises manufactured chemicals which are mostly micro (86), small (103) and medium (35) categories. These enterprises employed about 33,660 workers; the study added.
Apart from the chemical factories, 149 enterprises are found which produce pharmaceutical products.
Bangladesh’s export of hazardous chemicals is confined mainly to two items -hydrogen peroxide and urea.
Over the years export of hydrogen peroxide has been increasing –from $270,000 in 2010 to$16.1 million in 2021.
Since a large part of export products are handled at the port, safety measures related to chemicals are important at the port, the study added.
According to different international accords, a total of 15 chemicals are considered hazardous and Bangladesh imports almost all of the chemicals. However, the amount of imports varies widely.
The present study reviews the level of compliances maintained in hazardous chemical-related value chains particularly related to the ICD-related activities, identifies the weaknesses and puts forward a set of suggestions for improvement of compliance.
CPD Executive Director Fahmida Khatun, Christian Aid Bangladesh Programme Manager Nuzhat Jabin, and CPD Research Intern Jebunnesa (Jeba) were also present at the programme.
On June 4, the deadly fire at BM Container Depot in the Sitakunda area of Chittagong killed 51 and injured over 200 and caused a loss of $110 million worth of assets.