The Guardian 28 May, 2008
Solidarity visit by
Bangladeshi environmental activist
Approximately 30 environmental activists met at Muswellbrook in the NSW Hunter Valley last week to listen to Professor Anu Muhammed, who is visiting Australia from Bangladesh. He is giving talks in some major centres on the situation in his homeland which has seen the effect of climate change taking hold in a big way.
As most people know, the burning of fossil fuel is a major contributor to greenhouse gasses which in turn is causing climate change. Bangladesh has seen some serious flooding in recent years from huge cyclones that appear on a more regular basis now and it seems that that situation may take a turn for the worse if a huge open-pit coal mine planned for the north-west of the country is given the approval by the country’s new government.
The project, called the Phulbri Coal Mine Project, is located about 350 kilometres from the nation’s capital Dhaka and 10 kilometres from the Indian border and is in one of Bangladesh’s most fertile agricultural areas that produces up to 3 crops per year.
The Phulbri mine would be one of the most controversial projects ever to be considered as it will mean that up to 50,000 people would be displaced and these displaced people would end up in the already overcrowded cities in the south of the country.
If approved the project would see the construction of one of the worlds biggest open-cut mines on the earth extracting up to 15 million tonnes of coal per year over a 35-year period from a 6,500 hectare mine site. The total capital cost of this project is estimated at US$1.5 to US$3 billion?(AU$1.6 to AU$3.2 billion).
The project is massive by any measure and the starting point is to de-water the entire mine-site. This water from under the ground will find its way into the many surrounding rivers, aquifers and agricultural land.
Australian mining giant BHP initially discovered coal in Phulbari in 1997 and obtained licences to explore the region and develop a coalfield. Following the merger with Billiton in 2001 the licences for Phulbari were transferred to the newly formed Australian company Asia Energy Corporation (AEC), created specifically for the project but it would appear that BHP still has some input into this project in the form of royalty payments that they receive of US$1.00 (AU$1.04) per tonne of coal produced totalling nearly US$600 million (AU$627 million) over the life of the mine.
In 2005 AEC received site clearance from the Bangladesh Department of Environment for the 6,500 hectare mine and applied to the Asian Development Bank for the funds to proceed with the project but in August 2006 local concerns about the mine were growing and finally came to a head when between 50,000 and 100,000 protesters, mainly local farmers and Indigenous people peacefully gathered in opposition to the mine. Three people were killed, three people were permanently disabled and up to 200 people were wounded when the Bangladeshi Rifles, a government paramilitary group, open fire on the protesters.
In the uproar that followed the shootings, the government acceded to the demands of the local communities that the Phulbari project be cancelled, Asia Energy be asked to leave the country and all further steps for coal development be taken only after proper consultation with the local people. While the local administration has fulfilled some of these commitments, Asia Energy still remains in the country and the new government has shown no signs of cancelling the project.
While it is true that Bangladesh is facing an energy shortage, nearly all the expected coal produced from this project is to be sent to the export market with a meagre 6 percent going to the Bangladeshi government, which is very low by international standards.
The transport of the coal from this mine to the export terminal in the Bay of Bengal crossing the country from north to south will cause significant damage to the already fragile ecosystems along the proposed route. The site for the proposed offshore loading terminal at Akram Point has the largest mangrove forest in the world squarely in its sights and all will be lost if this project proceeds.
Here we are seeing the shear bloody — mindedness of the capitalist system being used to enhance the bank balance of the investors in this cruel and purposeless project at the expense of the poor local people.
Tipan