Work of SEA to be expedited
The Prime Minister’s Energy Adviser Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury yesterday assured that Bangladesh will complete the Strategic Environmental As-sessment for the conservation of Bangladesh’s south west region, including the Sundarbans, in two and a half years.
Addressing a press conference about the 43rd session of the World Her-itage Committee, he said the Bangladesh government will take any measures that would be recommended by the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) report after completion.
The 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) was held in Azerbaijan’s Baku from June 30 till yesterday. A sixteen-member govern-ment delegation, led by the energy adviser, joined the session.
“We have pledged to do three things,” Tawfiq said at the press conference at the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We will complete the work of National Oil Spill Chemical and Contingency Plan. We will invite a Reactive Monitoring Mission from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the WHC…We will expedite the work of the SEA. We have already completed the tendering process of the work and evaluation is now ongoing,” he said.
At the session, the Unesco had postponed the decision of including the Sundarbans in the list of “World Heritage in Danger” until next year.
In the agenda set by the WHC in June for its 43rd session, the topic of whether the Sundarbans should be listed as a World Heritage in Danger was included.
The WHC requested the Bangladesh government to submit all updated documents of the initiatives it has taken for the conservation of the Sundarbans by February 1 of next year.
It said the information would be examined at 44th session on the WHC in 2020, so that the committee can decide whether or not to include the Sundarbans in the list of World Heritage in Danger.
The WHC also expressed concerns regarding the currently active 154 industrial projects just upstream of the Sundarbans, and also requested the government to invite a joint WHC and IUCN Reactive Monitoring Mission to assess the state of conservation of the Sundarbans by the end of this year.
Regarding the concern about 154 factories surrounding the Sundarbans, former director general of the Department of Environment Sultan Ahmed said at the press conference that those factories were not built recently and were established in the 1960s.
“Of them, only 24 are in the ‘red category’ of DoE. Putting them in the red category does not mean it will destroy the environment. It means that there is a chance of polluting of environment,” said Sultan, who is currently the chairman of RAJUK.
He said that none of the 24 is of the textiles or dyeing units and they don’t create liquid wastage.
“So, there are no chances of water pollution or even soil pollution. There are no threats to the Sundarbans,” he said, adding, “The 24 factories are also under monitoring.”
Tawfiq said that majority of the countries at the session were in support of Bangladesh and that there was no scope to stop power plants.
“We have assured and confirmed that we will take all necessary steps to preserve the Sundarbans,” he said.
He said those who are protesting against the power plants “do not have enough information and knowledge.”
He said that Bangladesh will provide full support to the IUCN and WHC Reactive Monitoring Mission. “We should keep in mind that their decision is not final, rather the WHC will take final decision,” he said.
Answering a question about whether the government has failed to earn confidence of the people regarding Rampal power plant, Tawfiq said, “Is there any study saying we have failed to win people’s confidence? Only a few people in human-chains doesn’t not mean we failed to win people’s confidence.”
Power division Secretary Ahmad Kaikaus and Water resources Secretary Kabir Bin Anwar also spoke at the press conference.
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