Bangladesh had never known before that a ‘friendship’ power plant with India under joint venture initiative will be the most debated project and center of many misgivings with the potential to wreck the foundation of the friendship and trust.
The location of the coal-fired power plant namely ‘Bangladesh-India Friendship Company Ltd’ closer to Sundarbans’ (14 km) periphery is agitating the people as they fear its adverse environmental impact may destroy the forest and the livelihood of several million people of Bagerhat and Khulna region.
Even Indian government environmental guidelines do not allow setting up such a plant within 25 km periphery of forest and eco-sensitive areas and it has also laid up the strict procedure of public hearing before selecting any spot to make sure it will not be harmful to people and the ecology of the region. On Indian side of the border establishing such project is totally impossible.
India shutting coal-based plants
But why India is pressing for it and Bangladesh government is allowing the project ignoring nationwide protest and local and global opposition of environmental groups and human rights organizations remains a tricky point.
Besides, when India is shutting most of its coal-fired power projects, why it is determined to set up another such a plant across the border is also not clear. In addition, the arrangements for financing of the project by $1.6 billion Indian Exim Bank loan has also raised question as to why Bangladesh has to take the loan with repayment liability when India will have 50 percent of its ownership without any liability.
In fact both Bangladesh and India will have cash collateral of 15 percent each with the understanding that India is becoming owner of half of the project using loans that Bangladesh is taking from the Indian bank. Both countries have decided to set up two 1320 MW power plants at the location regardless of the mounting opposition within Bangladesh to the project.
Even the two governments are refusing to relocate the project site at a distance; which could reduce the opposition and the friendship company could really get a happy acceptance instead of making people hostile. There is nothing transparent and even the land acquisition of the project was reportedly completed before the deal was signed.
The highly critical question agitating people’s mind is why India is setting up coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh when they themselves are closing most of their plants on environmental grounds. Reports said Indian Energy Ministry in June this year announced plans to cancel four proposed coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 16 gigawatts (GW).
The plans previously called for four ultra mega power plants (UMPP) across Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Odisha, but these are now to be cancelled due to lack of interest from the host states.
India’s major policy shift
This is yet another major policy shift underscoring how seriously India is working to transform, modernize and diversify its electricity sector away from coal based power plants. Interestingly, for eight years, these four proposed power plants were in the planning, preparation and land acquisition stage. However, community resistance to compulsory land acquisition and forced resettlement together compelled the Indian government to scrap the plans.
Moreover, two of the UMPPs (8GW) planned for coastal locations that were to be run on imported coal has also been scraped to reduce dependence on imported coal; which is raising power tariff in India.
These four UMPPs would require a total of 46 million tones of coal per annum and half of it was to be imported bringing pressure on balance of payment. India produces low quality coal and its use in Bangladesh plants as agreed upon will make our environmental condition even worse.
India now plans more solar-based power plants to come from wind, biomass, small scale hydro-electricity and waste-to-power based plants.
Besides, water crisis is seriously affecting operation of coal-fired power plants.
Despite the Indian government’s determination to double or even triple domestic coal production, the power sector is now being hit by water scarcity — with a new report warning the crisis could get far, far worse.
Only recently, operators of 2100 megawatt (MW) coal-fired Farakka power station in West Bengal have closed down five of the six turbines due to lack of water. A few days later the 500 MW sixth unit was also shut down. Another report in May last said Bihar government had shut down two mega power plants for shortage of water.
Water, environmental catastrophe
Why water is so important to run coal-fired power projects? It is because, as expert say, water has to be pumped from rivers to cool the turbine but later hot water is being pumped back into the rivers with chemical waste. It will pollute water, air and destroy forest. It kills fish and other elements in the water and creates much more ecological crisis. Coal storage will create huge problem spreading dust over the region and ash management will be the biggest challenge to find wasteland for dumping. There is no such waste land around Sundarbans and the consequences will be severe on the local environment.
The CEO of BIFCL, who is an Indian national told local media few days back that they would take water from Pashur river and pump it back. And such disclosure is enough to figure out what setback Sundarban forest will face and its water bodies including rivers will suffer from such situation.
A TATA report rated 47 coal-fired power plants around India in terms of efficiency and compliance with environmental regulations, concluding that together they are among the world’s “most inefficient” plants with “immense scope for improvement”.
It said the power sector scored “poorly on all parameters”, receiving an overall score of 23 per cent – compared to the 80 per cent that a plant following best practices could potentially achieve –and with 40 per cent of the rated plants scoring below 20 per cent.
The average efficiency of the plants in the study was 32.8 per cent, one of the lowest among major coal-based power-producing countries. The average CO2 emissions figure was 1.08 kg/kWh, which the report noted is 14 per cent higher than China’s.
The study found that the plants collectively use around 22billion cubic metres of water, or over half of India’s domestic water need. And it noted that 55 per cent of the units were in violation of emissions standards “which are already extremely lax”.
In addition, the plants were found to be operating at an average of 60-70 per cent capacity. Bangladesh wants to live with India as a good neighbour and people here expect India will be mindful of the people’s sensitivities. What India thinks best for itself should also think the same for Bangladesh. It is not yet late to review the plan.
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