DHAKA: A giant coal-fired power plant approved by Bangladesh could drastically worsen air pollution for millions and cause the early deaths of 6,000 people over its lifetime, Greenpeace said Friday.
Bangladesh is constructing the 1,320-megawatt power plant on the edge of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, despite warnings the controversial project threatens the fragile ecosystem and human health.
The UN has already urged Bangladesh to halt construction, warning it poses an unacceptable risk to the UNESCO-protected mangroves that provide a barrier against deadly storm surges and cyclones.
But in a new report Greenpeace warned emissions from the plant represented one of the single largest threats to air quality for millions living across Bangladesh and as far as neighboring India.
“Over its operational lifetime, the plant’s emissions will increase the risk of stroke, lung cancer, heart and respiratory diseases in adults, as well as respiratory symptoms in children,” stated the report released Friday.
“People in Dhaka and Calcutta (India), particularly children and the elderly, would also be harmed. Even if Bangladesh currently had zero air pollution, the plant alone would cause the premature deaths of 6,000 people, and low birth weights of 24,000 babies.”
The plant at Rampal in Bangladesh’s south-west could also deposit enough mercury to render fish unsafe to eat for millions living across the Bay of Bengal, and devastate the aquatic food chain of the Sundarbans.
The plant — a joint project by India and Bangladesh — would be powered by nearly five million tons of coal shipped every year along the mangroves’ fragile waterways, a natural habitat for endangered Bengal tigers and rare Irrawaddy dolphins.
Scheduled to open in 2018, the plant is projected to discharge nearly 125,000 cubic meters of chemically-tainted water every day into nearby water catchments, Greenpeace said.
The UN warned in October that the plant would “irreversibly damage” the pristine forest, which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997.
The dense mangroves provide a buffer against violent weather roaring into the delta, which has killed thousands living in impoverished coastal villages and islands in recent years.
There was no immediate comment from Bangladeshi authorities or the joint-venture company bankrolling the $1.7-billion plant.
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has defended the project and rejected concerns about its impact as politically motivated.
The project has galvanized street protests in Bangladesh, with campaigners calling for the plant to be scrapped or relocated.
Bangladesh coal plant could cause 6,000 early deaths: Greenpeace
Bangladesh coal plant could cause 6,000 early deaths: Greenpeace
NASA’s new moon rocket heads to the pad ahead of astronaut launch as early as February
- The 98-meter rocket began its 1.6 kph creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak
- The six-kilometer trek could take until nightfall
CAPE CANAVERAL, USA: NASA’s giant new moon rocket headed to the launch pad Saturday in preparation for astronauts’ first lunar fly-around in more than half a century.
The out-and-back trip could blast off as early as February.
The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began its 1 mph (1.6 kph) creep from Kennedy Space Center’s Vehicle Assembly Building at daybreak. The four-mile (six-kilometer) trek could take until nightfall.
Thousands of space center workers and their families gathered in the predawn chill to witness the long-awaited event, delayed for years. They huddled together ahead of the Space Launch System rocket’s exit from the building, built in the 1960s to accommodate the Saturn V rockets that sent 24 astronauts to the moon during the Apollo program. The cheering crowd was led by NASA’s new administrator Jared Isaacman and all four astronauts assigned to the mission.
Weighing in at 11 million pounds (5 million kilograms), the Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule on top made the move aboard a massive transporter that was used during the Apollo and shuttle eras. It was upgraded for the SLS rocket’s extra heft.
The first and only other SLS launch — which sent an empty Orion capsule into orbit around the moon — took place back in November 2022.
“This one feels a lot different, putting crew on the rocket and taking the crew around the moon,” NASA’s John Honeycutt said on the eve of the rocket’s rollout.
Heat shield damage and other capsule problems during the initial test flight required extensive analyzes and tests, pushing back this first crew moonshot until now. The astronauts won’t orbit the moon or even land on it. That giant leap will take come on the third flight in the Artemis lineup a few years from now.
Commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover and Christina Koch — longtime NASA astronauts with spaceflight experience — will be joined on the 10-day mission by Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, a former fighter pilot awaiting his first rocket ride.
They will be the first people to fly to the moon since Apollo 17’s Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt closed out the triumphant lunar-landing program in 1972. Twelve astronauts strolled the lunar surface, beginning with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969.
NASA is waiting to conduct a fueling test of the SLS rocket on the pad in early February before confirming a launch date. Depending on how the demo goes, “that will ultimately lay out our path toward launch,” launch director Charlie Blackwell-Thompson said on Friday.
The space agency has only five days to launch in the first half of February before bumping into March.
