Country's first CDM project goes into operation tomorrow

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Munima Sultana
Country's first carbon project goes into operation tomorrow (Tuesday) with the objective of reducing emission of 89,000 tonnes of green house gas (GHG) under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in next couple of years.
The CDM is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduces emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reduction in their own countries.
WWR Bio Fertiliser Bangladesh, a Bangladesh and Dutch joint venture company, is launching the project on receipt of approval from the CDM executive board.
Dr CS Karim, Advisor for Ministries of Agriculture and Water Resources will inaugurate the project as chief guest at the plant site in Narayanganj on Tuesday. Barrister Raja Devasish Roy, Special Assistant to Chief Advisor, in charge of Ministry of Environment and Forests and CHT Affairs, will also be present as special guest.
Md Reazuddin, member secretary of Designated National Authority (DNA), local CDM approval authority, said with the launching of the project, the country would enter the carbon trading market.
He said the project has got the approval for meeting all CDM components -- sustainable development, employment generation, environmental sustainability and national economic benefit apart from GHGs emission reduction.
Sources said the compost plant of the project has been set up at Bulta in Narayanganj along Dhaka-Sylhet highway. The total cost of the project is Euro 12 million.
The project will reduce methane gas which is 21 times harmful than Co2 through managing daily waste of 700 tonnes and producing 50,000 tonnes of compost yearly, they added.
Besides, the sources said the project is to create job opportunity for 800 urban poor, including women and it would also save a good amount of money spent by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) on waste collection and management.
Iftekhar Enayetullah, Project Director WWR Bio Fertiliser Project, said the methodology of GHG emission reduction was calculated by Waste Concern and World Wide Recycling of the Netherlands, two major partner companies of this project, and approved by the CDM Executive Board of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
He said under this project, vegetable waste will be collected using the project's own transport networks and taken to the compost plants. An agreement has been signed between WWR Bio Fertilizer Bangladesh Ltd. and DCC to collect wastes from its area.