The China backed coal based power plant of S. Alam group in Banskhali near Chattogram in Bangladesh has been accused of providing false data on environmental pollution by a Helsinki based environmental tracker group Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
According to the report published by CREA on Tuesday, the analysis of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the power plant accessed by it revealed that false claims were made about the baseline air quality. The plant’s mercury emissions were also completely omitted. The CREA report claims that the project plans to apply very weak emission standards which would not be legal in China.
The report says that mercury emissions from the plants would lead to potentially dangerous levels of mercury deposition in an area with an estimated 7.4 million population. It may also potentially cause 30,000 pollution related deaths over its operating life of 30 years.
Bangladesh power industry regulator Power Cell Director General Mohamma Hossain told Bloomberg Green that the project was approved following the country’s standard. He said if any new complaint is received about air-quality standards, they will look into it.
The 1024 MW under construction Banshkhali power plant is a joint venture company between the Bangladeshi S. Alam Group and the Chinese Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation (SEPCO III) and HTG Development Group having a 30 per cent stake. Most of the project is financed through a USD 1.8 billion loan from a consortium of Chinese banks, says CREA. The Chinese company is also the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor of the project.
The controversial project has witnessed violent protests in the past by the workers and local people. In April this year 5 people were killed in police firing during a protest by the workers. Earlier, In 2016, four people were killed in a clash with police in the same power plant.
सोशल मीडिया पर अपडेट्स के लिए Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/industrialpunch) एवं Twitter (https://twitter.com/IndustrialPunch) पर Follow करें …
