Staff Reporter :
The government will go ahead with construction work of the much talked about Rampal coal-fired power plant – a joint project of Bangladesh and India — near the Sundarbans in line with the UNESCO’s latest report, said Prime Minister’s Energy Affairs Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
His remarks came on Monday, a day into the World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO made it clear that no large-scale industrial or infrastructural development should be allowed to proceed in the vicinity of the Sundarbans before Bangladesh carried out a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for its south-west region.
“We will initiate mitigating measures, if necessary. The UNESCO is concerned about the environmental impact. Similarly, we are careful that no harm is done to the Sundarbans,” he said while addressing a press briefing over the Rampal power plant project at Bidyut Bhaban in the city yesterday afternoon.
Chowdhury, who advises the Prime Minister on Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, said the government will conduct a strategic environmental assessment as the UNESCO has suggested, and continue with the project.
The government is constructing a 1,320-MW coal-based power plant at Rampal aimed at improving the country’s power generation capacity.
“We will carry out the SEA in two years, while a progress report of the SEA would be prepared by 2018,” he said.
Tawfiq-e-Elahi said the government is also aware about the largest mangrove forests Sundarbans, as a world heritage site, adding, “We will monitor the project as well as the environment closely to take quick mitigation measures.”
The government successfully submitted its scientific and logical statement at the 41st session of the World Heritage Committee of the UNESCO as an observer of the session, he said.
In a report uploaded on Sunday to its website on decisions made at the 41st session of its World Heritage Committee earlier this month held in Poland, it asked for submission of the SEA report to the World Heritage Centre (WHC) as soon as it was available.
On July 9, Tawfiq-e-Elahi said the government would continue building the Rampal power plant and do an SEA alongside as per UNESCO’s request.
But in reality, the UN organisation has given Bangladesh until December 2018 to implement recommendations made by a UN monitoring mission for protecting the Sundarbans before it could start building the power plant.
The UNESCO in its report published on Sunday said it had requested Bangladesh to put in place a management system for shipping to minimise negative impacts, including from associated activities such as dredging. It reiterated its request to Bangladesh to undertake the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for any future dredging of the Pashur River.
It welcomed Bangladesh’s move of not approving the Orion power plant and phase-II of the Rampal power plant in the Sundarbans area.
It, however, noted with concern that sea level rise, salt intrusion and reductions in fresh water flows were posing a threat to the Sundarbans’ ecosystem and that the area was particularly vulnerable to impacts from these threats.
It laid emphasis on the importance of trans-boundary cooperation between Bangladesh and India in preservation of the Sundarbans and urged Bangladesh to fully implement the recommendations made by a UNESCO mission last year in relation to ensuring adequate freshwater inflows to the mangrove forest.
Welcoming the development of a draft “National Oil Spill and Chemical Contingency Plan” (NOSCOP), the UNESCO requested Bangladesh to ensure adequate provision for funding and human resources for the implementation of the plan once it was adopted, and to provide further information and data on the monitoring of long-term impacts from recent shipping incidents involving spills of hazardous materials in proximity to the Sundarbans.
The Sundarbans was included in the World Heritage Site list in 1997.
