Unlike Germany, the population density in Bangladesh is very high (a fair resettlement of the people displaced by open-pit mining will be very difficult), and the environmental impacts of open-pit coal mining on our limited arable land, water bodies, and underground water tables will be far-reaching, both in terms of area and time.

Besides, environmental laws and regulations with regards to coal mining are non-existent in our country, and there are no national companies capable of carrying out safe mining yet.

While the reporter describes the practice of open-pit coal mining as a very positive experience in Germany, he fails to note that such coal mining is highly subsidised in that country, with domestic coal production declining; Germany actually imports coal from other countries.

Compare that with Bangladesh, and readers can understand that subsidising coal production in our country will be difficult, and will hardly meet the urgent need for more viable sources of energy. From that perspective, Germany is not a good example for Bangladesh to emulate, either.

This is a crucial time for our nation, and it is important that policy decision makers are not influenced by incorrect reporting. In the write-up, the omission of the viewpoints/interviews of the local stakeholders (people who actually were affected by open-pit mining in Germany) is also noticeable, and so is the strong message coming from the mining company itself.

As such, the report reads like a company brochure, and not like a thoughtful journalistic piece, which is really not expected from a highly respected newspaper like the Daily Star.

I would urge the reporter concerned to broaden his research and produce a balanced addendum, and not be swayed by his visit to the sites chosen by a company that is very interested in open-pit mining in Bangladesh, which actually will provide very little financial gain for our country.

With climate change affecting our homeland directly, we need to be very cognisant of the harmful affects of usage of fossil fuels, and the fact that coal-fired power plants are one of the primary sources of global warming. Our energy choices must be mindful of this issue for the sake of our future generation.

Open-pit coal mining is not a good idea for present day Bangladesh, and the ecological, economic, and human consequences of such a move would be very dire indeed. We need to keep our coal reserve and develop our capacity for coal mining, and build regulatory mechanisms for safe extraction through alternative methods that are being developed elsewhere. However, all this will take time, and the planning and implementation should begin now.

While our national coal policy is being finalised, we need to make sure that this is done as part of a long-term, integrated energy strategy that provides a thorough assessment of both natural gas and coal, and incorporates greater emphasis on renewable energy sources (solar, biogas etc) and energy efficiency (in household, industrial, and transport usage of energy).

In the short term, to meet our current energy crisis, we need to concentrate on proper usage of our precious natural gas resource, and make sure it is no longer wasted in preventable accidents (such as the Titas accident, Tengratila and Magurchara gas blow outs), or in the implementation of wrong foreign investment proposals (which provide little financial gains for our country while our valuable and limited natural resources are exported).

In a June 23 article published in the Daily Star, the Bangladesh Environment Network (BEN) Energy Panel expressed such sentiments with regards to the national coal policy, and made similar suggestions.

I hope our national policy makers will take note of these suggestions, and our coal policy will be finalised as part of a sound, pro-people, and pro-environment holistic national energy strategy.

Dr. Sarwat Chowdhury, a member of Energy Panel, Bangladesh Environment Network, writes from Lusaka, Zambia.