Experts trash Shankar’s claim
Green and rights activists on Saturday protested Indian power secretary’s recent remark that the proposed coal-fired power plant in Bagerhat near the Sundarban would
have ‘very little impact on the environment’.
Indian power secretary P Uma Shankar made the remark to journalists after visiting the site of the proposed 1,320 megawatt plant at Rampal on January 30.
Environmentalists said setting up the thermal power plant by a private Indian company under a memorandum of understanding signed between Dhaka and the Indian company
in August 2010 was against the fundamental state policy laid out in Article 18A of the constitution.
They vowed to continue with their movement in demand of relocating the proposed plant to a place away from the Sundarban as it posed a threat to national resources,
biodiversity, wetlands, and wildlife of the world’s largest mangrove forest.
Environment experts also said the emission and noise of the plant would also cause extinction of some animal and plant species.
In his reaction, National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power, and Ports member secretary Anu Muhammad termed the power deal unequal and non-
transparent.
According to the deal, the Indian company will bear only 15 per cent of the production cost but get 50 per cent of the electricity generated, he pointed out.
Besides, he said, the unit price of power to be produced by the proposed plant was yet to be set and the Indian company would lead the project management.
As the project site is just nine kilometres from Sundarban, it will affect the forest, said Anu, referring to the opinion of an environmental expert committee led by
Abdus Satter Mandol.
The amount of carbon emitted by the plant will affect the biodiversity and pollute water, thus destroying the Sundarban, the committee said.
The project was laid out without any feasibility study and assessment, said Anu, a professor of economics at Jahangirnagar University.
The national committee has already announced a three-day long-march from Khulna to Rampal via Bagerhat on March 9-11 to create pressure on the government to cancel the
project, he said.
As the proposed plant will run on coal, India will benefit the most from it, environmentalist Nur Mohammad told New Age.
Paribesh Bachao Andolon, (Save the Environment) Bangladesh chairman Abu Naser Khan said that they would continue movement in various forums as the construction of the
power plant in any form would pose serious threat to the Sundarbans.
There will be no existence of the Sundarbans and animals in the forest due to smokes, sound to be generated by the power plant, said Naser Khan.
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan general secretary Mohammad Abdul Mati said the government had taken contradictory positions on the Sundarban by campaigning for electing it
as one of the seven natural wonders of the world and planning installation of the plant near the forest.
Consumers’ Association of Bangladesh energy adviser M Shamsul Alam said developed countries were no longer approving coal-fired power plant projects considering their
impact on the environment.
The experts were also critical of the bilateral agreement to set up hydro-power plants in India’s north-eastern states as joint-venture initiatives of Bangladesh-India
Friendship Power Company.
They apprehend that dams required for running such plants would dry up the common rivers downstream.
Courtesy of New Age