Coal’s dominant role in the electricity
making is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, coal has been one of the main
energy resources, but experiences have shown that burning coal is one of the
dirtiest ways to produce electricity. Despite the damaging consequences of
burning coals on human health and environment, the race is still on to build
more coal-fired power plants particularly in the developing world. In order to
meet the country’s growing energy demand, Bangladesh has also jumped on the
bandwagon to possibly build a total of eight coal-fired power plants under the
tenure of present government.
The proposed 1320 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Rampal upazila, situated
just 14 kilometers north of the world's largest mangrove forest 'Sundarbans' – a UNESCO World Heritage site, has been in the center of huge controversy
in recent years. Besides the political debates over constructing the power plant
with partnership of India's state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the root cause of the controversy is the
potential environmental impacts of having a coal-fired power plant so close to
the world’s largest mangrove forest and the local communities that live around.
The proposed power plant has a
multi-dimensional impact upon the local biodiversity, environment and
half-million people who depend on the mangrove forest, from the coal combustion,
waste storage and heavy coal barge traffic by the sea and river estuaries. The
local air would increasingly be toxic by burning coal, which usually produce
gases e.g. Carbon dioxide (CO2), Sulphur dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxides (NOx),
Volatile Organic Compound (VOC), and other chemical emissions e.g. Mercury
(Hg), Arsenic (As), Lead (Pb) & Cadmium (Cd). By mounting a taller flue-gas
stack would disperse and dilute the exhaust pollutants but it wouldn't
necessarily defuse it, hence the risk still remain that the pollutants would
cause acid rain and gradually over time the soil and aquatic ecosystems would
become more acidic, hence invariably have knock-on negative effects on the terrestrial
and aquatic flora and fauna.
Varieties of solid (e.g. fly ash,
boiler slag) and liquid (e.g. coal sludge) waste are to be produced. A typical
500 megawatt coal power plant creates more than 125,000 tons of ash and 193,000
tons of sludge from the smoke-stack scrubber each year. Therefore, the proposed
1320 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Rampal would produce ash and sludge more than
double a typical 500 megawatt coal power plant would have been produced. The
risk is genuinely higher where toxic substances in waste e.g. Arsenic (As),
Mercury (Hg), Chromium (Cr), Cadmium (Cd) could contaminate local water surface
and ground water.
We cannot ignore the potential
environmental and economic costs that would incur on the local population and
the aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna. Undoubtedly, Bangladesh
needs a major shift from the natural gas-based power plant to something more
sustainable energy sources as there is a genuine fear that the existing gas
reserve would run out within a decade. It is therefore necessary to pay a
greater attention on the diversification of country’s energy sources. Instead
of putting too much emphasis on coal fired power plant, Bangladesh should
concentrate more on renewable energy sources, which has huge potential to
establish a stronger presence in the country’s energy diversification strategy.
Since the first
industrial revolution, our predecessor had to burn coal as they didn’t have
much choice. But, we now have the knowledge, experiences and technical know-how
that promote sustainable energy including renewable energy sources that we
didn’t have back then. Bangladesh doesn’t need sleepwalking to the past
mistakes that our predecessor did; instead the country can potentially leapfrog
into more cleaner and sustainable future in order to fulfil the aspirations of
the green industrial revolution.
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