About the project
The Rampal power plant, also known as the Maitree Super Thermal Power Project, is a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power station located in Bangladesh, near the World Heritage Site of Sunderbans Mangrove Forest. The project is a joint venture between the National Thermal Power Corporation of India and the Bangladesh Power Development Board. It has faced significant controversy due to concerns about its environmental and social risks.
Sundarbans is the natural habitat of famous ‘Royal Bengal Tiger’ and with its 140,000 hectares is one of the largest such forests in the world. As reported by the Environmental Justice Atlas, « although the government is assuring that the coal-based project will be constructed using modern technology and will be less polluted, activists argue that as the power plant located very close to the Sundarban will certainly damage the natural habitat of Sundarban jungle. » In October 2016, also a UNESCO monitoring mission report recommended that the Rampal project should be ‘cancelled’ to avoid negative impacts to the Sundarbans forest.
Yet, the year after India’s Ex-Im Bank provided a $1.6 billion loan to Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (BIFPCL) to develop the Rampal plant. Through a financial intermediary, the project also received support from the International Finance Corporation, while the Asian Development Bank supported a $700 million loan to build transmission lines in southwestern Bangladesh that will carry the electricity from the plant.
The communities around the power plant consists mostly of day laborers, fish folk, and farmers, who are are highly dependent on the mangroves and the precious ecosystem of their territory. Approximately 800 families have been negatively impacted by the project and have faced land-grabbing and forced displacements.
About the community-led struggle
Initiative for Right View (IRV) is a research and development organization working in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh since 2008, particularly focusing on marginalized groups such as Indigenous and Dalit women, youth and children. Supported by the CRE, IRV has carried out a Participatory Action Research (PAR) in displaced and marginalized communities around the Rampal plant near the Sunderbans Mangrove Forest. The study aimed at documenting the social and environmental impacts of the large-scale energy project. The use of this participatory methodology allowed to gather evidence and share key information for the advocacy, increase awareness about the project’s impacts, get media coverage, and strengthen the collective advocacy efforts of the impacted communities.
IRV also organized a consultation at Rampal, Bagerhat with officials, civil society and community representatives to discuss the land acquisition and grabbing as a result of which many families have been displaced.