The massive 1,320 megawatt Rampal thermal plant would sit on the edge of Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, in Bangladesh. For more than two years, citizens, artists, and social and environmental activists protested plans to build this plant close to a forest that is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s world heritage site as well as a Ramsar wetland site. In September 2013, about 20,000 people marched for five days from Dhaka to Dighraj. ‘The long march’ covered a distance of nearly 250 miles, to demand the scrapping of the power plant.
The $1.2bn project is a joint venture between India’s national thermal power corporation and Bangladesh’s power development board. Environmentalists allege the plant will not only pollute the mangrove forest, but emissions from burning coal will contribute to climate change. Low-lying Bangladesh, said to be one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, is threatened by rising sea levels, but many of its citizens have no access to electricity. The government seeks to produce 20,000 megawatts of cheap coal-fired power by the year 2021. But 50% of power generated by Rampal is destined for India, while Bangladesh’s citizens and environment are expected to bear the brunt of it.
The environmental impact assessment admits the distance between the project and Sundarbans is about nine miles, but some environmentalists allege the distance is no more than five miles. Even before the completion of this document that’s contested by environmentalists, many families were evicted and the land on which they farmed shrimp and rice taken over.
The plant has to import about 4.75m tonnes of coal annually from Indonesia, South Africa, or Australia. The mangrove channels need regular dredging to allow ship traffic through the Sundarbans. Activists are concerned by the possibility of accidents, increased turbidity of the water, and erosion of riverbanks. Water from Passur river diverted to cool the plant could turn the waters of the mangrove even more saline. Releasing warm water back into the river could affect the entire chain of aquatic life. The plant is expected to produce more than 1m tonnes of fly ash annually and it’s not clear how this will be disposed. The environment assessment claims that periodic cyclones would blow away accumulated sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
Bangladeshi environmentalists are particularly incensed that a proposal to set up a similar plant by the national thermal power corporation of India in the Indian state of Chattisgarh was shot down.
In a bid to allay these fears, Prime minister Sheikh Hasina told parliament that the plant will not harm the protected mangrove forest.
In December 2014, the council on ethics of Norway released its assessment of the country’s government pension fund global’s investment, valued at $56m, in the thermal plant. It recommended the fund exclude the project from its portfolio “due to an unacceptable risk of the company contributing to severe environmental damage”.
The Council on Ethics considers it highly unlikely that a coal-fired power plant can be constructed at this location without the construction itself constituting a high risk of severe environmental damage, even if extensive additional measures are implemented. In the present case, the company has also failed to give sufficient consideration to what needs to be done to protect the environment.
In addition, the council worried about the impact of constructing additional infrastructure such as pylons and transformers to transport electricity out of the area.
The project planned to dump fly ash around the site to raise ground level, but the council wondered if contact with water during floods would lead to heavy metals like mercury contaminating soil and water. Bangladesh already suffers from significant arsenic poisoning of its drinking water.
Disaster management is another area of worry. In mid-December 2014, more than 350,000 litres of oil leaked into the Sundarbans after a cargo ship collided with an oil tanker. The slick spread over 45 miles of river, creating a hazard for wildlife such as the Ganges and Irrawaddy river dolphins, salt water crocodiles, water monitor lizards, and aquatic organisms such as mudskippers. Some of the oil was mopped up by villagers and children using crude methods.
In the meantime, in response to the concerns expressed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Bangladesh government has formed a ministerial committee to re-assess the impact of the power plant as well as the December oil spill on the Sundarbans.
It’s likely that in the face of such a strong recommendation from its council on ethics, the pension fund will pull funding from the Rampal plant. Although its stake in the Rampal plant is relatively small, its withdrawal will be a shot in the arm for activists and concerned citizens objecting to the project’s proximity to a unique natural ecosystem.
-The Guardian
