Building Rampal plant despite concerns abuse of power: Sultana Kamal

Going ahead with implementing the controversial Rampal coal-fired power plant despite science-based concerns and widespread criticism was an abuse of power and corruption as well, said rights activist Sultana Kamal on Saturday. 
The government had no regard for scientific assessments which revealed hazardous impacts of the project, observed Sultana, also chairman of National Committee for Saving the Sunderbans. 
She said the government would continue with the project as scraping it would mean to it a defeat to people’s demand.
Addressing a news conference, jointly organised by the national committee, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolan, Doctors for Health and Environment and Blue Planet Initiative in the city, she warned that implementation of the project would be a bad example.
At the programme, a review report on mercury emissions from the coal-fired plant and its effects on the Sunderbans, prepared by US-based professor at Syracuse University Charles T Driscoll, was presented by Dhaka University’s geography teacher Badrul Imam.
According to the report, coal combustion at the plant would likely increase mercury exposure for people eating fish from the forests’ water-bodies and the Bay of Bengal and also would threaten wild animals that consume fish, including endangered birds, cetaceans, reptiles and tiger, Badrul said.
After reviewing a number of government documents including the environmental impact analysis of the plant, Charles found that the EIA was less informative about the magnitude of the mercury emission from the plant. 
Charles simulated the mercury emissions from the plant using the CALPUFF atmospheric modelling system approved by United States’ Environmental Protection Agency.
‘He [Charles] came to the conclusion that mercury deposition in the project area would increase when in operation, approximately 50 per cent higher than government estimation,’ said Badrul. 
Paediatric Nazmun Nahar, president of DHE, warned that coal-combusted mercury emission would increase birth of children with disabilities in the neighbourhoods of the plant. 
Chaired by Sultana Kamal, the conference was also addressed by BAPA secretary general Md Abdul Matin, Dhaka University’s economics teacher MM Akash and Bangladesh Agricultural University’s environmental engineering teacher Anwar Hossain. 
Bangladesh-India Friendship Company is implementing the 1320MW-power plant near the World Heritage Site amid widespread criticism at home and abroad. 
An agreement was signed between Bangladesh and India in April 2013 for setting up the power plant.
India-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited on April 25 announced that it got the $1.5 billion export order for the plant.
On May 5, Norwegian central bank took Indian industrial giant BHEL out of its investment portfolio due to environmental concerns.

 

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