Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) lauded the government for its decision regarding cancellation of the proposed 350MW coal-run power plant at Gazaria in Munshiganj district as the local people expressed their concern over possible toxic pollution in the area.

In this regard, the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources requested the Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance to drop the project from the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with China in 2016. 

“We thank the leadership of the Rural Power Company Limited (RPCL) for listening to the concerns of local people about the toxic pollution that would harm the health of people living in the area if the coal plant was built.  The RPCL assessment that it was not feasible to barge imported coal to the site on the Meghna River was correct,” said a statement of the BAPA on Sunday.

In addition to saving the river Meghna from dirty coal pollution, it will save RPCL’s lacs of taka not to build an about 3600 crore taka coal plant that could not get enough imported coal to run consistently. The decision to cancel a plant dependent on foreign coal will also help the trade imbalance that is now much worse due to COVID-19 impacts on industry and international commerce, it added.

The statement further said this makes the RPCL decision to cancel the Gazaria coal plant both environmentally and economically wise. We applaud the wisdom of this important decision and encourage more coal plant cancellations across the country.

BAPA has reviewed analysis from scientists around the world who determined that COVID-19 infection and death rates may be much worse in areas with high levels of air pollution. Because coal plants are among the highest producers of toxic air pollution including sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), particulate matter, mercury and ash, they increase the risk of both chronic and acute diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, lung cancer, heart disease, asthma and lung infections.

Coal plant pollution causes thousands of people with these conditions to die prematurely. Since COVID-19 attacks the lungs and Bangladesh has not built most of the 29 coal plants proposed in the Power System Master Plan, it would be best for the health and welfare of millions of Bangladeshi’s if all the remaining coal plants are also cancelled. It would also be best for the Bangladesh economy to cut down on the foreign debt required to pay billions to foreign companies to build coal plants when the world is moving towards a global recession caused by COVID-19.

Specifically, RPCL has proposed to build a massive four-unit Patuakhali coal plant (2640 MW) in Kalapara that would be 7.5 times larger than the newly cancelled Gazaria coal plant. Canceling Patuakhali would be an economically wise decision since the Payra Power plant does not have enough customers to pay for the power it is projected to produce when it comes online later in 2020.