The proposed project for electricity generation from waste in Bakalia Char on the Karnaphuli River has been cancelled following protests over concerns that it would cause river pollution and harm biodiversity.

Chattogram City Corporation, or CCC, had applied to the Ministry of Land for the allocation of roughly 14 hectares of land for the project. However, the ministry notified the Chittagong district administration that the proposal was not approved.

Following this, the district administration issued a letter to the Upazila Executive Officer, or UNO, of Boalkhali on Thursday, instructing him to take necessary steps in light of the project’s rejection.

Mohammad Rajib Hossain, deputy collector of Revenue at the Chattogram district administration, told bdnews24.com: "There were objections from the River Commission, environmentalists, and local residents regarding the project proposal. The Ministry of Land has informed us through a letter that the project proposal has been rejected."

He added that a letter was sent to the UNO of Boalkhali to notify them of the ministry's decision.

The letter stated, "If a waste treatment plant is established on the char of the Karnaphuli River, there is a risk of river water pollution and a severe disruption to biodiversity and the ecological balance of the environment."

The Karnaphuli is located near the estuary of the Bay of Bengal, with Chattogram Port on its banks and Shah Amanat Bridge, also known as the Third Karnaphuli Bridge, upstream.

Upstream of the bridge is the Kalurghat area, where the first Karnaphuli Bridge, also known as the Kalurghat Bridge, was built nearly 100 years ago. Since then, sandbanks have started to emerge between Shah Amanat Bridge and Kalurghat Bridge in the middle of the river.

The char or raised land, known as Bakalia Char, emerged about 1.5 kilometres upstream of Shah Amanat Bridge, with a total area of nearly 42 hectares.

In 2023, the CCC applied to the land ministry to lease the government land for a long term to establish a waste treatment plant.

In 2022, a private development and research organisation, Effective Creation on Human Opinion, or ECHO, conducted research in Bakalia Char, identifying a total of 155 species of plants. Among them were 64 species of trees, 20 species of herbs, 57 species of shrubs, 12 species of climbers, and 2 parasitic plants. Of the 155 species, 113 were medicinal plants.

In 2023, CCC submitted five proposals from foreign companies to the Ministry of Local Government for generating electricity from the city's waste.

Among them, the Chinese company Sevya-Czech-Orchard JV proposed a waste-to-energy project in Bakalia Char, which emerged in the middle of the Karnaphuli River. Following this, the city corporation applied to the land ministry last year for approximately 14 hectares of land for the project.

When the matter became public, in March of this year, a coalition of six organisations, under the banner of 'People’s Protest Platform to Save Karnaphuli,' launched a movement demanding the cancellation of the project. They carried out a series of programmes to support their demands.

Aliur Rahman, the general secretary of the Chittagong River and Canal Protection Movement, who led the protests, expressed gratitude to the government for cancelling the project.

"Without harming the environment, including rivers, canals, hills, and trees, the city corporation should carry out this project elsewhere if they wish," he said.

Welcoming the decision to reject the project proposal, Associate Professor Mohammad Omar Faruq Russell from the Department of Botany at Chittagong University, who led the research on the biodiversity of Bakalia Char, told bdnews24.com, “This is a positive decision to protect the river from pollution.

"Had the project been implemented, the Karnaphuli River would have faced severe pollution due to waste transportation. Moreover, the nearby Halda River would also have been affected. The project would have endangered the 155 plant species found in the char, as well as many birds and animals dependent on the char."

He emphasised that wherever the waste treatment project is established in the future, it must be done with full consideration of the environment and ecology.

News Link: Power plant project in bird sanctuary of Karnaphuli Char cancelled