Berlin – Bangladeshi expatriates and some other international students in Germany ( including German) on Saturday 7th January, 2017staged a demonstration in Berlin as part of the global action programme protesting the move of Bangladesh government to set up a power plant near Sundarbans, the largest Mangrove Forest area in the world.
The protest rally was organized by the German Probashe (Bangladeshi Students and Alumni Association in Germany) and Benglishe Cultural Forum in Germany. ‘Yes to life, No to Coal, Save Sundarban’ was the slogan of the protest. This slogan was written in more than 25 languages including German, French, Italian, Hungarian, Spanish, Indonesian, Arabic, Hindi, Polish, Korean, Turkish, Bosnian, Portuguese in different countries all over the world and people participated in the protest expressing their solidarity with expatriates. The demonstrators urged the Bangladesh government to stop the suicidal coal project near the Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The demonstrators bearing red cards and festoons pointed out the importance of saving forests and the possible negative impacts of the project.
The 1320 MW Rampal coal-fired power plant is proposed to be built just miles away from the Sundarbans, home to thousands of indigenous communities as well as endangered species, including the Bengal tiger and Irawaddy dolphin. It would also make some 50 million coastal people more vulnerable to natural disasters, as the Sundarbans is a natural safeguard against frequent cyclones, storms and other natural disasters.
In October 2016 the United Nations World Heritage Committee issued a report urging the Bangladeshi government to cancel the Rampal coal plant due to the threats it poses to the Sundarbans.
The India-Bangladesh Friendship Power Company recently secured financing for the Rampal coal project from India’s Export Import Bank, and construction is expected to start soon. – Rasha Binte Mohiuddin
