BD to apprise World Heritage body about its position

The government will send a delegation to the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee to appraise Bangladesh's position on the state of conservation of the Sundarbans Forests.
The World Heritage Centre of Unesco declared the largest mangrove forest on earth, the Sundarbans of Bangladesh, as a 'World Heritage in Danger' site.
The declaration came last week as Unesco was discontent with the measures taken to protect the Sundarbans in purview of Rampal Thermal Power Plant and other development projects.
 "Energy Adviser to the Prime Minister Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury will lead the 11-member Bangladeshi expert team to Baku, Azerbaijan to present the position paper at the 43rd session of the World Heritage Committee meeting," Power Cell DG Mohammad Hossain told the Daily Observer on Sunday.
The World Heritage Centre of the Unesco enlisted the Sundarbans as national heritage in 1999 and opposed the construction of Rampal Power Plant since its inception. Hossain said the committee will be comprised of Senior Secretary of the Power Division Dr Ahmed Kaikaus and members from the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Mongla Port authorities.
 "The government selected a natural wetland and fertile agricultural land for the project. Land acquisition order for this power plant was issued on December 27, 2010 - more than two years before the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) was done, said Professor Dr Anu Muhammad.
Anu Muhammad, also the Member Secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil Gas Mineral Resources Power and Ports, further said, "Before the EIA was approved, the joint venture agreement to set up the power plant was signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board and the Indian company NTPC on January 29, 2012."
And one year later, a public consultation was arranged by PDB on April 12, 2013. The experts, invited for the consultation, identified serious problems with the EIA; they rejected the EIA and asked the government to stop all activities before another independent EIA was conducted, he observed.
However, a week later the final agreement was signed by defying that rejection�.all these were happening with this project that showed how the government did all the misconduct with the project," he said.
"Despite knowing all the issues, the government allowed a private organization to implement a fuel-based power projects 4 km away from the Sundarbans (according to a published news here), he added.
Earlier, the World Heritage centre also requested the government to invite them to assist to prepare a set of corrective measures to secure the Sundarbans from any potential environmental danger.
The government claimed that the Rampal would not pose danger to the Sundarbans as it took huge measure to combat the pollution of a cola-based power projects," according to the Power and Environment Ministry.
In 2017, the government sent a similar delegation to the 41th meeting of Unesco World Heritage committee. The UNESCO team set a guideline for the projects and asked the government to submit updates to them on regular basis.
"As agreed with the Unesco in the 41 session in 2017, the Unesco assessed that government did not make enough progress about undertaking Structural Environment Assessment (SEA) for the southwest region of Bangladesh and allowed construction of two additional power plants on the Payra river and numerous other industrial projects in the periphery of the Sundarbans in the Southwest region. The government was also carrying out dredging in the river which could impose threat to the mangrove forest," states Unesco document.
"Little progress has been achieved to address the significant threats" to the Sundarbans," it reads. The World Heritage Centre sent the government a request letter to submit an updated report on the state of conservation of the property for further examination.