¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·

Some of the steps taken in the power and energy sector by the interim government are carbon copies of the actions of the immediate past fascist Awami League regime, aimed at perpetuating the reign of the syndicate of looters and corrupt, speakers said in a seminar on Wednesday.

The deal to procure liquefied natural gas that has been recently signed with a newcomer American company without tender is a carbon copy of how the Awami regime managed affairs, said Anu Muhammad, an economist and the former member secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Port platform.

The deal came as the interim government for months had been repeating the same reason for continuing the harmful energy and power projects in had succeeded from the past fascist regime that these projects could not be discontinued due to various difficulties, Anu Muhammad said.

‘This is just a pretext for continuing what AL started,’  said Anu Muhammad addressing the seminar organised at the Dhaka Reporters Unity in the morning on sharing experience of having coal power plants in Bangladesh.

Cancelling the indemnity law, under which the Awami League regime approved scores of power and energy projects bypassing competitive processes, while at the same time allowing all AL-era projects to continue was the first step of the interim government that surprised people big time, he said.

Speakers said that the interim government could have led the exit from the flawed energy policy inherited from the AL regime.

Burning fossil fuel for development is globally proven to be net benefit negative, particularly the harmful impacts of coal on soil, air and water are already proved, said economist MM Akash. 

‘Coal is the last resort. But it has alternative such as gas. Locally extracted gas can give optimum output,’ he said.

MM Akash also urged the government to make big investment on solar and wind energy potentials to ensure uninterrupted supply of affordable and environment-friendly electricity.

‘The investment might seem not profitable but in the long run its benefits are irrefutable,’ said Akash.

Local people from areas such as Rampal, Moheshkhali and Payra, home to Bangladesh’s major base-load coal-based power plants, shared stories of their lives at the seminar since the emergence of the power plants.

Scores of families were evicted and now were living in tiny houses, leaving behind their previous sources of livelihoods with vast resources of fish and farm crops now ruined by the power plants, they said.

Highways were built through the heart of rivers, affecting coastal embankment at a time of the rising sea level, they complained.

Coal-fired power plants devoid of effluent treatment plants are polluting rivers by releasing used water directly into the rivers, while emitting ash covering the skies day and night, they said.

‘Affected people were committed compensations three times their loss,’ said GM Mahbub, who came from Payra in Patuakhali.

‘The commitment was only partially delivered but people lost their ancestral home, waterbodies to grow fish and land to grow crops,’ he said.

The past AL government had promised that the plants using the most advanced technology would not pollute the environment and also create numerous employment opportunities, speakers recalled.

They also demanded the formation of a tribunal, if the interim government failed to deliver justice, to hold public trial of the perpetrators of the environmentally harmful power projects.

‘Almost everyone in the plant areas have skin disease. Children, pregnant women and elders are suffering from respiratory illness,’ said Sabur Rana, who came from Rampal in Bagerhat. 

Professor Nazrul Islam, vice president of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, Bapa in short, that organised the seminar, presented the keynote paper tracing the past government’s plan and actions in developing the current coal-based power generation capacity of about 7,000MW.

Bapa president Nur Mohammad Talukder, its general secretary Zakir Hossain and Center for Environment and Geographic Information Services director Mohammed Mukteruzzaman also spoke at the seminar.

The economic, environmental and public health consequences of AL’s harmful power and energy projects were inevitable and would continue to cause suffering unless they were stopped, the speakers warned, calling for mobilising a mass movement on the issue.