Sundarbans put in harm's way

The government made lofty promises when the Rampal project was launched in the Sundarbans. Amidst a national outcry to protect the mangrove forests, we were told that the project would have no impact on the natural habitat of Sundarbans and the forest would be protected. The authorities have given permission to not 1 but 190 industrial units to be set up in the vicinity of the Sundarbans, 24 of which fall under the "red" category, i.e. "extremely harmful" to the environment. Industries, farms and hatcheries of different categories are being built in the ecologically critical area (ECA) and in contravention to Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act 1995 (amended 2010) that specifically bars setting up of any factory in ECA. The whole matter came to light thanks to a writ petition filed on August 22, 2017 seeking a relocation of industries from the Sundarbans. The government has made a complete farce about its commitment to safeguarding our one and only mangrove forest which acts as a natural vanguard against natural calamities such as floods and cyclones.

We would like to know how 181 out of 190 of these projects obtained environment clearance certificates from the Department of Environment (DoE). Our question is how on earth DoE cleared certification for the 24 units that fall under the "red" category which will inevitably be discharging toxic liquid waste into the Sundarbans, thereby adversely affecting the delicate ecological balance.

In a country, where we have witnessed how industries located in the capital city have all but destroyed major rivers like the Buriganga and Sitalakhya, precisely which government agency is going to be monitoring these industrial units in far off Sundarbans? The irony of these 190 projects is that none of them fall under the "green" category which means "not harmful". We demand that the Anti-Corruption Commission launch an investigation into how DoE gave such polluting industries the go ahead and all construction be stopped immediately.