Business Desk :
Environmentalists and civic forum members in a joint statement have expressed concern over the government’s decision to import low-quality Indian coal for Rampal coal-fired power plant.
Asking the government to stop the construction of Rampal power plant and to cancel the import of Indian coal, they said this project would damage the biodiversity and ecology of the Sundarbans irreversibly.
Quoting Indian media reports, the statement said 3,800 tonnes of Indian coal have already reached and been unloaded at Kolkata port from Jharkhand and it would be sent to Mongla port to fuel a trial run of the newly built Rampal coal-fired power plant. Each month, India will supply 22,000 tonnes of coal for the power plant.
The Bangladesh government has not provided any information on the import agreement between India and Bangladesh, which is against democratic norms, the statement said.
Indian coal is globally considered substandard. Per kilogram of Indian coal produces 300 grams of fly ash while Indonesian or Australian ones produce only 70 grams, pointed out the statement.
Moreover, 700 grams of Indian coal is needed to produce one unit of power, while 450 grams of American and 500 grams of Indonesian coal needed to produce the same. For this reason, India itself imports coal from Indonesia, Australia and South Africa for their power plants, added the statement.
The statement said if Indian coal was used, Rampal power plant would need 40 per cent more coal and would cause five times more pollution.
Additionally, seven rivers will be adversely impacted during the transportation of the Indian coal as 120 ships will be used to bring the coal to the plant. In the last ten years, 11 cargo ships sank in rivers in Bangladesh and another 9 in the Indian rivers, the statement said.
All those incidents poured 6,000 tonnes of fly ash, 5,000 tonnes of coal, 370 tonnes of oil, 500 tons of potassium, 1,036 tons of gypsum and 700 tonnes of wheat into the river waters polluting Sundarbans and its surrounding areas.
Jahangirnagar University Professor Anu Mohammad, Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association Chief Executive Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Transparency International Bangladesh Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman, Nijera Kori Chief Coordinator Khushi Kabir, Association for Land Reform and Development Chief Executive Shamshul Huda, Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt Convener Kazi Maruful Islam and its Member Secretary Hasan Mehedi are prominent among the signatories to the statement.
