Is a power plant at Rampal absolutely necessary?

The vigorous way the Power Development Board (PDB) is pursuing its plan to set up the coal-powered 1320 MW plant at Rampal gives the impression that it is not at all possible to change the place of the plant somewhere else so that the Sunderbans remains unaffected by it. It is as if the PDB has received a divine decree in this regard and hence its seriousness to establish the plant at Rampal come whatever on the way. The government of a country, that runs the risk of the worst blows from climate change, is not expected to be so callous about so serious an issue. Bangladesh’s environmental experts as well as media for long have been calling for immediate halt to the work for constructing the plant. Bangladesh is a power-starved country and for meeting development goals it needs to generate more power. Of this there is no doubt. And the present government is very positively going to that direction. A few days ago the Finance Minister AMA Muhith made a very welcome announcement that by 2018 Bangladesh would be able to overcome the power shortage. But this does not necessarily mean that the government has to go for power production establishing aggressively a coal-based power plant inviting risks to our precious forests.
Environmentally speaking coal as fuel for a power station is the most dangerous, because of the obvious reason that it emits poisonous carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulphur. At Rampal, if the coal-based plant is established, the liquid wastes and the gases that it would release can potentially cause great harm to the forest which is totally undesirable. On December 2014, there had been huge oil spill at the Shela River running through the Sundarbans when a tanker carrying about 350,000 litres of furnace oil crashed in the river after a collision with a cargo vessel. The layers of oil on river water were an environmental disaster. We are still unsure what the long term impact it would have on the flora and fauna of the forest. Despite this catastrophe, it is really surprising that tankers have been again allowed to carry oil through the Shela river.        
The world’s largest mangrove forest indeed acts in balancing the ecology of relevant areas in many ways in the Southern part of the country. Now if the proposed power plant at Rampal harms the forest, it would harm the country and with it, our existence. The relevant policy makers in Bangladesh have to understand this very simple thing.  
Not only the local environmentalists, some political parties and the media have expressed grave concern over plant at Rampal, the UNESCO earlier also called for stopping the ongoing work of the plant. A French bank which was supposed to fund for the project—it was actually an abandoned project of the Indian government—withheld funding for the same reason. Indeed PDB made an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, but this study, it is alleged, was conducted after the government took its final decision to establish the plant.
Several months ago, a team of local experts went to the plant site areas at the invitation of the PDB and they found that there was lack of information and mistakes in the PDB’s EIA report. These experts—including a BUET professor, Dr Izaz Ahmed, secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, Dr Abdul Matin, Transperancy International Bangladesh’s Dr Iftekharuzzaman, former director of Petrobangla Makbul-e-Elahi—called for a new and comprehensive EIA study on the proposed plant. Therefore, the ongoing work for establishing the plant has to be immediately stopped until all the pros and cons of the impact of the plant on the Sunderbans are thoroughly assessed and presented both before the national and international experts.
But ignoring this call, Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (BIFPC), the implementer of the project, is going to strike a deal of EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) involving $1.39 billion anytime in the month of March with Bharat Heavy Electricals, citing that the plant would not harm the forest’s ecological integrity as the plant would be constructed 70 kilometers off the world heritage site.
Though the PDB is calling the distance 70 kilometres, the fact of the matter is the Sunderbans is situated about 14 kilometres away from the proposed site. According to Abdullah Harun Chowdhury, a professor of environmental science discipline at Khulna University, the Sundarbans would face a long-term impact because it is so close to the proposed plant. Physical growth of plants, their flowering and fruiting will be severely affected while the breeding capacity of birds and wildlife of the forest will be lost.
 The EPI of the project says the proposed plant will produce 7.5 lakh tonnes of fly ash and 2 lakh tonnes of bottom ash per year. About 15 per cent of the ash will be generated as a result of the burning coal. The wind flow of the area indicates that the Sundarbans will indeed be affected by the toxic gases and ashes of the coal-based power plant in different seasons. As the ashes contain sulphur, carbon dioxide, arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, and cadmium, it can bring great harm to the environment of the forests.
The Sundarbans is a UNESCO heritage site and a UNESCO team is supposed to make a visit to the proposed site on March 8 to assess the environmental impacts at the invitation of PDB. If the UNESCO team gives the go-ahead signal, should we go for it? The Sunderbans is ours and the country is ours; and we should better know what is right for us and what is not. Even then let’s wait for UNESCO team to make its observation. Make no mistake: the flora and fauna of the mangrove forest is very important for our existence. If we really need a coal-based plant for power generation we can very well choose a different site that would not harm this forest.  

The writer can be contacted at: [email protected]

Is a power plant at Rampal absolutely necessary?

The vigorous way the Power Development Board (PDB) is pursuing its plan to set up the coal-powered 1320 MW plant at Rampal gives the impression that it is not at all possible to change the place of the plant somewhere else so that the Sunderbans remains unaffected by it. It is as if the PDB has received a divine decree in this regard and hence its seriousness to establish the plant at Rampal come whatever on the way. The government of a country, that runs the risk of the worst blows from climate change, is not expected to be so callous about so serious an issue. Bangladeshs environmental experts as well as media for long have been calling for immediate halt to the work for constructing the plant. Bangladesh is a power-starved country and for meeting development goals it needs to generate more power. Of this there is no doubt. And the present government is very positively going to that direction. A few days ago the Finance Minister AMA Muhith made a very welcome announcement that by 2018 Bangladesh would be able to overcome the power shortage. But this does not necessarily mean that the government has to go for power production establishing aggressively a coal-based power plant inviting risks to our precious forests. Environmentally speaking coal as fuel for a power station is the most dangerous, because of the obvious reason that it emits poisonous carbon dioxide, nitrogen and sulphur. At Rampal, if the coal-based plant is established, the liquid wastes and the gases that it would release can potentially cause great harm to the forest which is totally undesirable. On December 2014, there had been huge oil spill at the Shela River running through the Sundarbans when a tanker carrying about 350,000 litres of furnace oil crashed in the river after a collision with a cargo vessel. The layers of oil on river water were an environmental disaster. We are still unsure what the long term impact it would have on the flora and fauna of the forest. Despite this catastrophe, it is really surprising that tankers have been again allowed to carry oil through the Shela river. The worlds largest mangrove forest indeed acts in balancing the ecology of relevant areas in many ways in the Southern part of the country. Now if the proposed power plant at Rampal harms the forest, it would harm the country and with it, our existence. The relevant policy makers in Bangladesh have to understand this very simple thing. Not only the local environmentalists, some political parties and the media have expressed grave concern over plant at Rampal, the UNESCO earlier also called for stopping the ongoing work of the plant. A French bank which was supposed to fund for the projectit was actually an abandoned project of the Indian governmentwithheld funding for the same reason. Indeed PDB made an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study, but this study, it is alleged, was conducted after the government took its final decision to establish the plant. Several months ago, a team of local experts went to the plant site areas at the invitation of the PDB and they found that there was lack of information and mistakes in the PDBs EIA report. These expertsincluding a BUET professor, Dr Izaz Ahmed, secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon, Dr Abdul Matin, Transperancy International Bangladeshs Dr Iftekharuzzaman, former director of Petrobangla Makbul-e-Elahicalled for a new and comprehensive EIA study on the proposed plant. Therefore, the ongoing work for establishing the plant has to be immediately stopped until all the pros and cons of the impact of the plant on the Sunderbans are thoroughly assessed and presented both before the national and international experts. But ignoring this call, Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (BIFPC), the implementer of the project, is going to strike a deal of EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) involving $1.39 billion anytime in the month of March with Bharat Heavy Electricals, citing that the plant would not harm the forests ecological integrity as the plant would be constructed 70 kilometers off the world heritage site. Though the PDB is calling the distance 70 kilometres, the fact of the matter is the Sunderbans is situated about 14 kilometres away from the proposed site. According to Abdullah Harun Chowdhury, a professor of environmental science discipline at Khulna University, the Sundarbans would face a long-term impact because it is so close to the proposed plant. Physical growth of plants, their flowering and fruiting will be severely affected while the breeding capacity of birds and wildlife of the forest will be lost. The EPI of the project says the proposed plant will produce 7.5 lakh tonnes of fly ash and 2 lakh tonnes of bottom ash per year. About 15 per cent of the ash will be generated as a result of the burning coal. The wind flow of the area indicates that the Sundarbans will indeed be affected by the toxic gases and ashes of the coal-based power plant in different seasons. As the ashes contain sulphur, carbon dioxide, arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, and cadmium, it can bring great harm to the environment of the forests. The Sundarbans is a UNESCO heritage site and a UNESCO team is supposed to make a visit to the proposed site on March 8 to assess the environmental impacts at the invitation of PDB. If the UNESCO team gives the go-ahead signal, should we go for it? The Sunderbans is ours and the country is ours; and we should better know what is right for us and what is not. Even then lets wait for UNESCO team to make its observation. Make no mistake: the flora and fauna of the mangrove forest is very important for our existence. If we really need a coal-based plant for power generation we can very well choose a different site that would not harm this forest. The writer can be contacted at: [email protected]