Moving ahead with the proposed 1,320MW coal-powered Rampal power plant gives Bangladesh a bad deal — bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and bad news for all of us.
The $1.49 billion power plant, which is to be financed by India and is scheduled to start generating power in 2019, would endanger the Unesco World Heritage Site of the Sundarbans in ways that cannot be fully anticipated at present.
The environmental and social costs will be dire, and effects on the delicate ecology of the region could be catastrophic.
These losses would be further compounded by the fact that the main beneficiary of the plant would be a foreign government who would be unwilling to care about damages or pay the true cost of this project.
It is regrettable that in spite of the formation of the National Committee to Protect the Sundarbans, and objections from experts and respected figures of the nation, the government has refused to budge on the issue of Rampal.
Committee Convener Sultana Kamal is correct in her assessment that the plant is against the spirit of liberation. It would release toxic gases and chemical wastes into one of the most precious regions of Bangladesh, adversely affecting not just the lives of 20 people million, but endangering iconic creatures such as the Royal Bengal Tiger, and the deer.
Human intervention is forests in certainly one of the top reasons for dwindling wildlife and extinction.
There is no reason Bangladesh cannot find better locations in which we can build faciltiies to satiate the need for electricity.
If the government moves ahead with this project, it will be willfully destroying one of the greatest treasures of the nation to serve shallow business and political interests.
Source: Dhaka Tribune
