Fresh call to relocate Rampal power plant

Leaders of the National Committee to protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports have once again demanded relocation of Rampal power plant to save the Sundarbans. The Committee which has been relentlessly protesting installation of the thermal power plant near the Sundarbans says that it is a lucrative deal for an Indian power company. If implemented, the plant will destroy the forest which protects the coastal belt from natural disasters like cyclones and tidal waves as a shield.
Professor Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the committee says that the proposed coal-fired power plant has enough potential to destroy the Sundarbans. Speaking at a press conference at the Mukti Bhavan on February 15 last, he pointed out that as the government proceeds with the installation of the power plant the process of land grabbing by influential people in the forest area has reached its peak. There are many alternative ways to generate power. But the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world, has no alternative, he told the press conference.
The Bangladesh power Development Board (BPDB) signed a deal on January 29,2012 with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India to build the power plant. The proposed project, on an area of over 1834 acres of land, is situated 14 kilometres north of the Sundarbans. It will be the country's largest power plant. Green activists have been expressing concern over the probable adverse effect on the biodiversity of the Sundarbans for quite a long time with a call to shift the proposed plant at a distant place from the forest.
The Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) - an organisation of environmentalists - in a statement issued a day before signing of the agreement on the joint venture power project said that the plant would release toxic chemicals harming biodiversity of the Sundarbans. The power plant which is supposed to dump hot water into the river will gravely affect a variety of species of marine life at adjacent water bodies throwing them on the verge of extinction. The BAPA statement had also said that the project runs contrary to environmental laws now in force. On January 30, 2012, a day after the deal on power plant was signed, the National Committee to protect Oil, Gas, Mineral resources, Power and Ports said that the proposed thermal power plant would expose the forest and its adjoining rivers to severe pollution.
On the other hand, in the backdrop of global climate change, environmentalists at home and abroad fear that nearly 70% of the world's largest mangrove forest may go extinct due to one metre rise in the sea level. Dipen Bhattacharya, an expatriate climate expert, told media on the sidelines of an international conference on water resources in the city early last year that the Sundarbans would be the worst victim of the sea level rise. According to Mr. Bhattacharya, the inundation of other parts of the country may be overcome, but the damage to the Sundarbans can hardly be recovered.
Available scientific findings reveal that the sea level across the globe is now rising at a rate of 3.5 millimetres per year following climate change. Some forecast apprehend that the sea level rise could be as high as 5.0 millimetres in the near future due to intensified impact of climate change or global warming. Mr. Dipen Bhattacharya of US Riverside Community College had also told local media that the geographic features obstructed the Sundarbans' natural capacity to shift away for survival as it did century ago in natural course. He thinks that the climate change phenomenon has now exposed the mangrove forest to dangers of total extinction.
Green activists and the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) had also urged the government to cancel the deal of building the coal-based power plant at Rampal earlier. If installed, they said it would cause considerable damage to the Sundarbans. The call for cancellation was given after the agreement was signed in 2012. The decision to build the proposed power plant near the Sundarbans, a sanctuary of wildlife and the lone habitat of Royal Bengal Tigers is, according to environmentalists, suicidal.
Experts say the coal-based plant will emit huge volume of carbon dioxide and generate ashes causing environmental pollution. It will also pollute adjacent rivers and all other water bodies due to release of wastes from the plant posing threat to ecosystem. Declared as a world heritage site by the UNESCO, the Sundarbans alone constitutes about 41% of the total reserve forest area of the country.
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