Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has faced a question on the proposed Rampal Power Plant near the Sundarbans at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
She promised that the project would be implemented without any adverse impact on the Sundarbans.
The issue was raised by former US vice president Al Gore at a plenary session titled ‘Leading the Fight Against Climate Change’ at the Davos Congress Centre on Wednesday.
The prime minister highlighted that location of the proposed power plant as being 14km away from the extreme boundary of the Sundarbans and 70 km away from the World Heritage Site.
She also pointed out that the power plant would be using clean coal and modern technology to reduce the impact on the surrounding environment,” said Deputy Press Secretary to the PM Nazrul Islam.
The prime minister also invited Gore to come to Bangladesh and see for himself the location, he said.
Bangladesh has signed a deal with India to set up the 1,320-megawatt thermal power plant in Bagerhat’s Rampal, 14 kilometres off the Sundarbans. Environmentalists and leftist parties have been opposing it saying that the coal-fired power plant will threaten the ecological balance of the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world. The government, however, maintains that proper measures will be taken to protect the environment from pollution. “The prime minister told the plenary session in Davos that some people are unnecessarily creating an issue out of it,” said Deputy Press Secretary to the PM Islam.
He said Hasina assured the session that she herself will not clear any project if it posed any threat to the environment. Apart from the former US vice president, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, HSBC Group CEO Stuart Gulliver and Cofco Agri CEO Jingtao Chi attended the session.
