Sundarban under Danger

Ask anyone, and they can tell you that you cannot put a price on the Sundarbans. The people who live in and around the Sundarbans, those whose lives depend on it, can tell you, even without a degree in environmental science, that the mighty mangrove forest, which provides for them and protects them from natural disasters, is an irreplaceable asset. They'll tell you, as will environmentalists anywhere in the world, that there simply is no alternative to the Sundarbans, though there may be many alternatives to power production.

And yet, barely 14 km away from the edge of the world's largest mangrove forest, construction work is going on for a 1,320 MW coal-fired power plant in Rampal. The mega-project is being implemented by the Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt.) Ltd, a joint venture of the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India. Incidentally, no such plant can be set up within 25 km of a preserved forest, animal sanctuary or bio-diverse forest in India.

The government has consistently claimed that the power plant would cause no damage to the Sundarbans, despite expert opinions to the contrary. Local environmental groups, including Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA), Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA), the National Committee for the protection of Oil, Gas, Natural & other Resources (hereby called National Committee) and the National Committee for the Protection of Sundarbans, have all vociferously protested the government's proposal since the bilateral project was announced. Meanwhile, international bodies, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, Ramsar Convention Secretariat, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bangladesh, have formally expressed their concerns over the grave threats posed by the proposed power plant to the Sundarbans and urged the government to review their position.

Only last month, three French banks refused to invest in the Rampal power plant for the risks it posed to the critical ecological area. Bank Track, a coalition of organisations tracking the financial sector, declared in its report that there were “serious deficiencies in project design, planning and implementation” and that the failure to comply with minimum social and environmental standards and the corresponding financial risks made the project a clear “no-go” for financial institutions. The report called on signatory banks “to publicly rule out involvement in financing or support of any kind for the Rampal coal plant.” Six months earlier, two Norwegian pension funds pulled out their investments from NTPC for the same reason. The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global's Council on Ethics, after conducting a thorough investigation, recommended divesting from NTPC “due to an unacceptable risk of the company contributing to severe environmental damage.”

With 70 percent of the project to be financed from loans and 15 percent by India and Bangladesh each, the financial viability of the project – or a lack thereof – is a reality the Bangladesh government must confront, sooner or later. “We also must remember that it is Bangladesh which will have to pay back the loan and interests. This means that though Bangladesh has a 50 percent ownership of the project, it is financially responsible for 85 percent of it. In case the power production is stopped, Bangladesh will have to bear the cost of the entire loss,” informs Dr Abdul Matin, general secretary of BAPA.