UN body to sit with BD team at Warsaw today

The World Heritage Committee will sit with the government delegation at Warsaw in Poland today (Wednesday) to examine Bangladesh's efforts to save the Sundarban from the harmful effects of proposed Rampal coal-fired power plant.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Energy, Power and Mineral Resources Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury will brief the UN's world heritage body about the government plan and measures to mitigate all possible problems.
He will be accompanied by top officials from PMO, Power Division and the Ministry of Environment.
Following the meeting held in Paris this year, the UN has made an urgent intervention to stop the construction of a coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh. Unesco said the plant could damage the world heritage-listed Sundarban, which houses around 450 Bengal tigers.
 "On July 5, we will sit with the UN body. We will place all of our documents before the committee in Poland meeting to examine the state of conservation of the Sundarban," a senior official told the Daily Observer.
Report of a fact finding mission, published by Unesco and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), found that the proposed site of the Rampal coal-fired power plant, which is 65-km north of the Sundarban, would expose the downriver forests to pollution and acid rain.
Ships carrying coal and other material for the plant will move through the mangrove reserve, requiring dredging and dumpingof 32.1 million cubic metres of river bottom at first and further annual dredging. This threatens the breeding grounds of the endangered Ganges and Irrawaddy rivers dolphins.
Fresh water supply to the mangrove forest, already stretched by agriculture, must not be placed under any more stress, the observers said.
The mission recommends that the Rampal power plant project be cancelled and relocated to a more suitable location.
"The energy adviser will brief the World Heritage Committee that advanced technology would be used to mitigate the possible negative impacts of the Rampal power plant on the Sundarban," a senior official of the Power division said.
He will also highlight the government vision to generate huge electricity in the next couple of year for Bangladesh's economic development during his briefing, the official added.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee is tasked with overseeing the conservation and protection of cultural and natural sites on its World Heritage List.
Once a site is included in the list, the state concerned bears the responsibility of ensuring its protection.