Dhaka: Energy-starved Bangladesh plans to go for controversial open pit mining to maximise extraction despite concerns raised by experts about the method which may cause environmental problems and expose thousands to displacement.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that the Barapukuria coal mine might be converted into the country`s first open pit mine after completely rehabilitating the local people affected by the on-going underground mining activities, The Daily Star today reported quoting officials familiar with the situation.
"The Prime Minister mentioned that the land in Barapukuria mining area is already damaged and has subsided (and) after paying compensation to people for the loss of land and rehabilitating them, the mine could be converted into an open pit mine," the report said quoting a meeting source as Hasina joined a high-level meeting to review the energy and power crisis.
Hasina, however, noted that while many countries could easily implement open pit mining to extract up to 90 percent of their coal deposits, a densely populated agriculture-based country like Bangladesh could not go for such mining method so easily and asked officials to explore ways to minimise environmental damage.
"The premier and officials present at the meeting had the same view on coal mining method," the report said while experts said underground mining too was not environment friendly as the surface land subsides by one to two metres, making it useless for farming.
Experts say underground mining allows extraction of up to 20 percent of the deposits while the volume could be over 80 percent if the open pit or surface mining method is followed.
Officials said Barapukuria mine has a deposit of 389 million tonnes of coal but the present underground mining being carried out by a Chinese company would allow extraction of only 30 million tonnes over a period of 30 years, and leave a 4.5-square kilometre area at least one to two metres subsided and of no use.
The Prime Minister felt that at first people have to be compensated for loss of land, and then they could realise that a bigger mine has greater benefit for the whole nation.
Soon after assuming power, the ruling Awami League government started working on a compensation package for the Barapukuria coalmine site alongside designing a mining city in the area where the affected people will be offered jobs and residential facilities.
Surveys by the Geological Survey of Bangladesh (GSB) and others so far pinpointed five coal deposits having more than 2,500 million tonnes reserve, which is equivalent to more than 60 trillion cubic feet (TCF) gas.
Besides, there are untapped coal resource potentials in the northern region of the country while the biggest one of these deposits in Jamalganj is so deep that it cannot be profitably mined with the existing technology.
Bangladesh needs 13 million tonnes of coal a year for the next 10 years to generate additional power to meet its rising demand, as natural gas supplies for generating power
would not meet this need.
According to the sixth draft coal policy, if Bangladesh`s GDP remains as low as 5.5 percent till 2025, the country needs 19,000 megawatt additional power, if GDP is as high as 8 percent, it needs 41,000 MW power.
But the country is already faced with an acute gas crisis, a situation when coal is being considered as an alternative.
According to a government study, in a low GDP growth situation, Bangladesh will need 136 million tonnes of coal, and in case of a high GDP growth, it will need 450 tonnes of
coal till 2025.
Officials mentioned that the government has already taken initiatives for six 500 MW coal-based power plants in Chittagong, Mongla, Jajira and Meghnaghat to be operated with imported coal.
PTI
