DoE stops sand filling of Buriganga
A mobile court from the Department of Environment yesterday stops sand filling work of Dhaka West Power Ltd occupying Buriganga river at Waaspur in Keraniganj. Photo: Palash Khan
The Department of Environment yesterday stopped sand filling of the Buriganga by an excavator of an under-construction power plant at Waaspur in Keraniganj. The DoE asked its owners to produce documents based on which they were filling up a portion of the river. “As we were conducting a drive in Basila we saw from across the river that a mechanical earthmover was filling up the river by dumping sand into it,” said leader of the DoE team Director (Monitoring and Enforcement) Munir Chowdhury. The team was accompanied by Rab-2 personnel. The earthmover belonged to Dhaka West Power Ltd, which is sand filling the massive power plant site. The DoE team, sensing environmental degradation, immediately stopped the work. The project officials present at the site failed to produce environmental clearance certificate or any no-objection certificate either from the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority or the Dhaka district administration. Later, the head of the DoE team told The Daily Star that for projects like power stations it is illegal to start work before obtaining environmental clearance. Bangladesh Environment Conservation Rules 1997 forbids development of land before obtaining clearances from relevant authorities. The DoE committee on clearance certificates in its meeting on June 13 decided not to issue any environment clearance to Dhaka West Power Ltd due to irregularities by the company, DoE official sources claimed. The DoE team asked the officials of Dhaka West Power Ltd to appear at the DoE office on July 7 at 11:00am with all land ownership documents and relevant certificates. It has also asked them to explain as to why the work on the project continued without any clearance certificates.
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