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Save the Sundarbans - Stop The Phulbari Coal Mine
The Phulbari Coal Mine Project would establish one of the world’s largest open pit coal mines in northwest Bangladesh, forcibly displacing as many as 130,000 people, including more than 2,200 indigenous households.
READ THE LATEST UPDATE (25 NOVEMBER 2012) AT GLOBALVOICESONLINE.ORG
View a slideshow on youtube created by the International Accountability Project.
IAP's new Fact Sheet on the Phulbari project
Read the truth-out.org article: UN Calls for Immediate Halt of Phulbari Coal Project in Bangladesh
Don’t Let Open Pit Coal M ine Destroy Homes, Lives & Mangrove Forests in Bangladesh
Tens of Thousands of People Will Be Affected By This Destructive Project: Impacts on People, Land, Food & Water Forewarned
The Phulbari Coal Mine Project would establish one of the world’s largest open pit coal mines in northwest Bangladesh, forcibly displacing as many as 130,000 people, including more than 2,200 indigenous households.
The project would acquire and destroy nearly 6,000 hectares of land, 80 percent of which is fertile agricultural land that produces three crops per year. This land currently serves as a vital rice bowl for a country in which half of all people do not have enough to eat (are food insecure, or exist below the ‘ nutrition poverty line’ of 2,122 kcal per day).
Project plans clearly state that the company’s UK-based investor, Global Coal Management Resources Plc, will not replace the lands of those evicted - despite that fact that the vast majority are farming households that depend on their lands for food and their subsistence. It is of grave concern that this planned and forced eviction of tens of thousands of people with no land-for-land compensation is planned in one of the world’s most densely populated, land-scarce, and economically poor countries.
Project plans also threaten people’s right to water. An Expert Report commissioned by the Bangladeshi government found that as many as 220,000 people would suffer reduced access to water needed for household and agriculture use and deteriorating water quality, as a result of de-watering operations required to keep water out of the mine’s pit, which would lower the water table by 15-25 meters throughout a vast region.
Threatened communities are fighting to protect their lands and livelihoods, despite threats, intimidation, and the use of lethal force against them. Efforts to push the project forward have already resulted in bloodshed. In August of 2006, paramilitary forces opened fire on thousands of demonstrators who united to protest the mine, killing three people, including a 14-year-old boy, and injuring more then 200 people. In December of 2007, the World Organization Against Torture expressed serious concern that “ further violence, ill-treatment and even deaths may ensue if local communities again seek to give public expression to their opposition”
Environmental Threats
The Phulbari Coal Mine Project poses many serious environmental risks, including threats to the world's single largest remaining mangrove region: the Sundarbans Reserved Forest (SRF).
The SRF contains over half of Bangladesh’ s remaining natural forest, encompassing
approximately 600,000 hectares of land and water. This ecologically sensitive forest supports an extraordinary range of biodiversity, with 453 recorded species. In addition to nesting sites for several turtle species, it provides a critical habitat for at least 58 rare and threatened species, including the spotted deer, saltwater crocodile, Gangetic dolphin, and 117 species of waterfowl. Of particular note – it is also home to Bangladesh's last remaining population of the endangered royal Bengal tiger.
In recognition of the vital importance of this unique and sensitive mangrove ecosystem, the entire SRF was declared a reserve forest in 1875. It was subsequently designated an internationally significant wetland under the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance in 1972. The SRF includes three wildlife refuges, all of which are on UNESCO’ s World Heritage Site List.
Despite the Sundarban’ s formal protected status, plans for the Phubari Coal Mine Project call for the transport of coal through the SRF. If this project goes forward, up to 8 million tons of coal per year would be transported by a fleet of barges traveling down three rivers for approximately 58 miles, to reach a floating offshore reloading facility, where the coal would be transferred to large seafaring ships. Portions of this 58-mile transport corridor are aligned through the SRF. The floating transfer facility would be anchored off Akram point, which is located within the SRF.
With a fleet of 8 barges each traveling 33 hours to complete a single trip over the 36 year lifespan of the mine, the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the project concluded that the potential for oil spills is “ extremely high risk.” The ESIA further identifies the risk that fuel could contaminate the Sunderbans Reserved Forest as “ one of the most significant issues associated with the Project. In the event of a "worst case scenario" oil spill, the ESIA notes, “ it is likely there will be damage to the SRF shoreline” and “ extreme mortality or severe damage to mangroves and other shoreline plant species.”
Furthermore the resulting reduction in fresh water hydrology will have a deleterious effect on both the mangrove vegetation and the wildlife of the area, as both depend on an already reduced volume of fresh water, whereby further reduction of fresh water will result in a dangerous increase in salinity within the Sundarbans. This can cause massive mangrove die-offs and undue stress on affected wildlife and neasrby local communities.
Additional threats posed by this project include:
• massive greenhouse gas emissions resulting from a mine expected to produce up to 15 million tons of coal per year
• aquatic species impacted by the repeated dredging of the Pussur River required to allow for coal transport by barge and the diversion of two other rivers
• groundwater contamination resulting from rail corridor operations for coal transport and soil contamination at the Coal Terminal
• aquifer induced land subsidence
• major airborne pollution due to increased emissions of airborne particulate matter [PM] as well as gaseous air emissions and toxic metals
Read more at the International Accountability Project’ s website.
Read Energy at What Cost? Protests Against Forced Eviction from US-Backed Coal Mine Continue in Bangladesh by: Kate Hoshour and Christine Shearer on the Truthout website.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW TO HALT THIS DESTRUCTIVE PROJECT
How you can help: SIGN THE PETITION or write a letter. The campaign to halt the Phulbari Open Pit Coal Mine is at a critical turning point, with a decision on whether to approve this project expected at any time and a new Prime Minister in place.
Below is a letter from MAP Director Alfredo Quarto to use as an example and names/addresses where you can send one of your own.
To Whom It May Concern at GCM,
I just finished reading your broker’s rather disturbing “Power for the people” propaganda sheet on how lucrative an investment would be right now in the Phulbari Coal Mine disaster. I realize that you are trying hard to win the hearts and minds of your investors to buy into this latest project promotion, but cannot personally ignore the irony of the heading of your broker’s letter soliciting investor support. I am frankly astonished that you can so glibly write about “Power for the people” when your very intent and actions so obviously subvert People Power and further foster violent oppression of the people of the Phulbari region who stand opposed to this development! And, it is for good reason they stand opposed, as they must face the threat of forced relocation as their lands, livelihoods and basic rights are removed along with the coal you plan to extract from Phulbari.
I am the executive director of Mangrove Action Project (MAP), which is a global network including over 450 NGOs and 350 scientists concerned about the fate of the mangroves. Since MAP’s founding in 1992, MAP has been addressing the serious threats to our planet’s beleaguered mangrove forests. Over half the earth’s mangroves have already been lost to unsustainable development, and this ongoing loss is having very grave repercussions for our marine ecosystems and all of our lives.
Mangroves are the roots of the sea, providing nurseries for fish, shoreline protection from tsunamis and cyclones, and sequestering massive amounts of carbon, thus countering climate change. We need the mangroves now more than ever before, yet we are losing them at the rate of around 150,000 ha a year. And sadly Bangladesh is no exception and is experiencing a rapid decline in mangroves in the Sundarbans.
MAP is carefully monitoring plans to construct one of the world’s largest open pit coalmines in Phulbari with deep concern. MAP has recently launched a Save the Sundarbans Campaign; therefore we view your mining proposal as an open attack on this very timely and important international effort
We are also deeply concerned about the impacts on the tens of thousands of people whose homes, lands, livelihoods, and communities are threatened by this project, including at least 2,200 indigenous people. The fact that most of the people who would be forced off their lands are from farming households that depend on their land for their livelihoods and subsistence is of great concern - particularly because project plans clearly state that their lands will not be replaced.
Because the proposed mine would destroy an important agricultural region that produces three crops a year, this poses a threat to Bangladesh’s progress toward achieving food security.
The impact on access to water is a further concern, with as many as 220,000 people expected to suffer reduced access to water for household and agricultural use as a result of dewatering operations at the mine, that are expected to lower the water table by as much as 15-25 meters in an area extending far beyond the mine itself.
Furthermore the resulting reduction in fresh water hydrology will have a deleterious effect on both the mangrove vegetation and the wildlife of the Sundarbans, as both depend on fresh water, which has already been reduced in volume. Further reduction of fresh water will result in a dangerous increase in salinity within the Sundarbans. This can cause massive mangrove die-offs and undue stress on affected wildlife and nearby local communities.
Additional environmental risks posed by this project are numerous and grave. Bangladesh’s Sundarbans Reserve Forest is the largest remaining mangrove forest in the world. This UNESCO-protected ecosystem supports many critically threatened species, including the Royal Bengal tiger, and provides a life-saving natural buffer against the devastating impacts of floods, tropical storms, and cyclones, to which Bangladesh is so vulnerable.
As such, the Sundarbans Reserve Forest deserves and needs to be protected as a national resource and treasure. Yet the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for the proposed Phulbari mine clearly states that plans to transport coal by a fleet of barges and offload it to ships at Akram Point pose extremely high risks to the Sundarbans. Experts also warn that the risk of acid contamination of soil and water is extremely high in this project.
MAP is also aware that the opposition to the proposed Phulbari mine within Bangladesh has been strong and sustained - despite the use of lethal force in August of 2006, when thousands of people who gathered to protest the mine were fired upon and three people were killed, including a 14-year-old boy. As well, the World Organization Against Torture has expressed concern regarding the potential for further violence and bloodshed in this project if it is pushed forward without the consent of those most directly affected.
In light of the magnitude and gravity of the risks posed by this project, I highly recommend that your firm- GCM - withdraw your plans for open pit mining at Phulbari and ensure that this project does not move forward.
For the Sundarbans and the local and Indigenous communities of Phulbari,
Alfredo Quarto,
Executive Director
Mangrove Action Project
PO Box 1854
Port Angeles, WA 98362-0279
USA
mangroveap@olympus.net
www.mangroveasctionpropject.org
NAMES & ADDRESSES OF PEOPLE TO WRITE
1 . Sheikh Hasina, Honourable Prime Minister, Government of the People’ s Republic of
Bangladesh
Address: Prime Minister's Office
Old Sangsad Bhaba
Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd
2 . Advocate Mostafizur Rahman, M.P,
HON'BLE STATE MINISTER
Ministry of Land,
Address : Room # 305, 3rd Floor, Building # 4, Bangladesh Secretariat,Dhaka.
E-mail: state_minister@minland.gov.bd Web : www.minland.gov.bd
3. Dr. Towfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, BB, Adviser to the PM
Prime Minister's Office
Old Sangsad Bhaban
Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh
E-mail: info@pmo.gov.bd, info@powerdivision.gov.bd
4. Dr. Hasan Mahmud, M.P.
Honourable State Minister of Environment and Forests
e-mail : minister@moef.gov.bd. jsadmin@moef.gov.bd
