Pollution by Shipping Industry in the Northern Bay of Bengal: A Review Study

The Bay of Bengal marine ecosystem, blessed with vast resources. These resources are facing risks due to pollution and other anthropogenic activities as well natural calamities. During this study pollution from shipping industry was assessed and found that the soil confined to the Chittagong ship recycling yards was highly contaminated with chromium (2.42 to 22.12 mg/kg) and lead (11.3 to 197.7 mg/kg) also with deposition of cadmium and mercury. Besides soil contamination, the water was found with higher concentration of Fe (23.68 mg/L) whereas maximum limit recommended by WHO/FEPA is 0.03 μg/L. However, the northern BoB water was also found with the pollutants from oil spills, LDT, ballast water, sewage and garbage, toxic gases and accidental spills. Of the approximate 45,000 ocean-going ships in the world, about 700 (1.55%) are taken out of service every year. Bangladesh is the second country after India, in terms of volume of recycling. Most of the hazardous materials directly dump in the environment finally leading pollution in the marine environment. Under this study, most of the pollution assessment was from shipping industry confined to Chittagong coast (though Chittagong is the main shipping industrial zone of the country) which is not enough to represent the pollution level from shipping industry to entire Bangladesh coast. So, further study can be accompanied with entire coastal area of the country including eastern, central and western coastal zone of Bangladesh.