Letting coal rest eternally

Shamsul Huq Zahid | Published: May 11, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The prospect of exploiting a substantial volume of high quality coal reserves in Bangladesh in the near future appears to be slim.
Despite all the controversies, there was a faint hope that the government would one day start lifting coal from beneath the ground to help overcome the severe energy crisis the country has been facing. But that hope too would evaporate following the Finance Minister AMA Muhith's observation about exploitation of coal deposits in an over-populated country like Bangladesh.
The Finance Minister during a meeting with the representatives of the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) last Monday, reportedly, discouraged exploitation of coal reserves saying it is very difficult to extract coal in a densely-populated country like Bangladesh.
When a minister holding the finance portfolio gives his opinion against lifting of coal, one can guess well the prospect of coal mining in the country.
But the observation, it seems, is not a spontaneous one. Frustration emanating from unpalatable developments over coal mining in Phulbari might have forced him to make such a comment.
With gas reserves depleting fast, the country now is in the midst of serious energy shortage. Domestic coal could be a viable option to help narrow the same. The need for having own coal is now also felt more than any time before, particularly when a number of coal-fired large power plants are in the offing.
A flurry of activities had been going on in the middle part of the last decade to get a 'suitable' coal policy. But the government efforts suffered a serious jolt by a development taking place on August 26, 2006 at Phulbari.Â Three locals were killed and 200 others injured when the members of the para-military Bangladesh Rifles (now renamed as the Bangladesh Border Guard) fired on demonstrators protesting the government decision to allow open-pit mining by a London-based company, named Asia Energy.
The incident came as a serious blow to the move of both the government and the Asia Energy to extract coal from Phulbari mine having an estimated deposit of 570 million tonnes. The reserve is enough for the coalmine to remain in operation for 30 years at an extraction rate of 15 million tonnes annually. Â
The subsidence of agricultural land in areas surrounding the Barapukuria coalmine, which is only 10 kilometres away from Phulbari coalmine, also strengthened the forces protesting the coal-mining.
The violent incident brought the coal-mining issue to a dead end though there were moves behind the scene to re-start open-pit mining at Phulbari.
Displacement of hundreds of families and environmental hazards were the core issues that the protesters had highlighted. But politics played a part in it. Some left-leaning elements were involved in organizing the locals. Whether they were doing it for right or wrong cause is altogether a different issue. But the fact remains that they had a hand in Phulbari protests.
It would not be out of place to mention here that on December 21, 2010, a WikiLeaks cable had revealed that US diplomats had secretly pushed the Bangladesh government to re-open plans for the coalmine. In a cable sent in July, 2009, the then US ambassador in Dhaka informed the relevant authorities in Bangladesh that US investors had 60 per cent stake in the Asia Energy and he requested the Bangladesh government to authorise 'open-pit' mining. Â
Nearly seven years have gone by since the reported US persuasion, but the Phulbari project has remained stalled. It is unlikely that it would be revived in the near future. Thus, the prospect of using one of the most viable coalmines of the country remains very bleak.
There are reasons to feel frustrated that despite having enough of quality coal deposits, Bangladesh is unable to exploit a cheap energy source. Â
"Nothing but the people's interest should come first" is the universally accepted principle. If exploitation of a natural resource endangers the life and living of the people and causes harm to environment, it is better to skip such a move. The government, it seems, is looking at the coalmine issue in that perspective.
So, Bangladesh will have to remain content with the coal it is now extracting from the Barapukuria coalmine. The other coal reserves would continue to remain unexploited as things would be far more complicated with population density rising constantly. Besides, the time is not far away when coal would be seen as a dirty and redundant fuel following invention of a few more cheap and clean sources of renewable energy.
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