PM may not be aware of Rampal project details: Anu

Experts and activists on Monday censured the prime minister’s statement on the Rampal project and other coal-fired power projects near Sundarbans, which, they warned, would destroy the mangrove forest.Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday said that the government had been facing criticism about the Rampal 1,320MW coal-fired power project because ‘we are implementing it under a joint-venture with India.’
‘Either the prime minister does not know the details of the Rampal power plant or she made the comments in a hurry,’ said Anu Mohammad, member-secretary of the National Committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports.
Inaugurating six power projects through a video conference from her official residence Ganabhaban, the
prime minister said that the critics were silent when a coal-fired power plant was set up in a populous area at Barapukuria in Dinajpur district.
Anu Mohammad said, ‘Who is going to implement the project – China, India, US or Russia – is not important. There is no Sundarbans in Dinajpur. Any kind of constructions which would threaten the Sundarbans would be opposed.’
He said that Rampal was just 14 kilometres from the Sundarbans, a world heritage, but the prime minister had claimed the site was at a safe distance from the Sundarbans so the Rampal project would not harm the world’s largest mangrove forest.
Anu Mohammad said that the 1320MW Rampal power plant was ‘more dangerous’ than 150MW Barapukuria power plants as the area was wider and sensitive than Barapukuria.
‘Until or unless the government makes an impartial EIA (environment impact assessment), we cannot be sure about the impact of the power plant,’ said Sultana Kamal, former adviser to the interim government.
She said, ‘It is our duty to save the world heritage.’
‘Sundarbans itself is a fragile eco-system. Who is going to construct the power plant is not important. What is important is where it going to be set up,’ said Abdullah Harun Chowdhury, professor of environment science at Khulna University.
He said that the Department of Environment gave 59 conditions, including individual EIA on the 75 square kilometres of the Sundarbans which would be used for coal transportation and impact on its biodiversity for waterway dredging.
‘Unfortunately, without complying with the two EIA, the authorities concerned were constructing the power plant near the world’s lone mangrove forest, Sundarbans,’ said the professor.
He said, ‘According to the government EIA report, the wind flow diagram shows that for four months in dry season, the wind would drive the effluent towards the Sundarbans and the forest would absorb those.’
The state-run Bangladesh Power Development Board and Indian state-run National Thermal Power Corporation, in a 50-50 partnership, are implementing the 1,320MW coal-fired power project, while a local private company, Orion Group, is also implementing a similar project near the Sundarbans.

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