Report in The Daily Star, July 03, 2017
Green activists yesterday reiterated that the government should backtrack on the proposed Rampal power plant to be built in the vicinity of the world’s largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans, with a session of Unesco World Heritage Committee ongoing over the listing of “heritage sites in danger”.
The United Nations and the International Union for Conservation of Nature have already warned the government not to build the plant, but the government is adamant to go ahead overlooking concerns expressed at home and abroad, they said at a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity.
The National Committee to Protect the Sundarbans and Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) held the press conference to inform the media about the 10-day 41st session of the heritage committee beginning yesterday in Kraków of Poland.
Speaking at the press conference, economist Prof MM Akash said that whether the Sundarbans was on the list of “World Heritage in Danger” would be known by July 12, on the concluding day of the session.
Green activists have been protesting against the construction of the 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant in Rampal, fearing that it would destroy the harmony and ecological balance of the forest, which is also a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Speakers said that over the last two years they had released findings of 12 scientific and economic researches conducted by renowned local and foreign experts who used modern technologies in assessing negative impacts of the power plant on the Sundarbans.
The experts warned that chemical effects on water, soil, agricultural crops, trees and aquatic life as well as pollution from river dredging and navigation of coal-laden vessels would put public health in jeopardy and create economic and humanitarian disasters in the neighbourhoods.
Rasheda K Chowdhury, former adviser to a caretaker government and vice president of Bapa, said the government didn’t come up with any scientific explanation to invalidate the concerns, which proved it was far away from welcoming the benefits of modern technologies.
“They are taking all decisions on political grounds,” she said, while reading out a keynote paper at the press conference.
If the position of green activists against the plant and the scientific papers they presented are baseless, the government should come forward and counter those with scientific assessments, said Prof Badrul Imam of the geology department of Dhaka University.
“But the government is keeping mum,” he said, adding that it had to be found out whether any vested quarter was forcing the government to go ahead with the project.
Columnist Syed Abul Maksud said it would be shameful and humiliating for Bangladesh if the Sundarbans was listed as a heritage site in danger. It would also prove the government’s “ultra-super eccentricity”.
If the government takes measures, the green activists are even ready to participate in an open debate with government bodies concerned and are willing to submit their scientific documents, Bapa General Secretary Abdul Matin said. http://www.thedailystar.net/frontpage/shelve-rampal-project-save-sundarbans-1427473
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