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Head lines PDB turns to renewable resources to produce power Shahnaj Begum, The Independent The Power Development Board proposes to install some wind power, micro hydro and solar power plants in its drive to use renewable sources for generating electricity. Under this plan the PDB has identified some remote and off-grid areas in the country — Barkol, Bilaicharri in the hill tracts areas and Angarpota-Dahagram in enclaves and some adjoining areas in Tista Barrage in Rangpur district. The PDB authorities recently approved the project after conducting two feasibility studies on (i) Solar PV in the Chittagong Hill Tracts Region and (ii) Energy Conservation by Compact Florescent Lamp (CFL). Sources said that after getting a tremendous feedback from the users of the solar home system, the PDB is going to expand its solar programme in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area. It may be mentioned that about 200 powers have installed the solar home system at Juricharri upazila in the Chittagong Hill Tracts areas. According to the plan, 100 more solar home system connections would give in the area. ‘We have a plan to install a 8x225 KWh wind generator in Feni, a micro hydro plant at the Tista barrage with the help of the Water Board. We are also thinking of expanding the solar home system at Barkol and Bilaicharri upazila in CHT, SA Mayeed, Chairman, PDB, told The Independent yesterday. The PDB sources said under the renewable sources programme, the PDB has approved 11 new projects at a cost of TK 23.48 crore. These projects are the Chittagong Hill Tracts Solar PV Electrification Project, 20KW micro hydro power plant at Barkal, installation of 8 X 225 KW wind turbine power plant, feasibility study of solar electric power plant, energy conservation pilot project by Intelligent Motor Controller, solar electric power plant, energy conservation pilot project by CFL , centralised solar photovoltaic power plant, renewable energy hybrid power plant, electrification of Saint Martins Island by renewable energies and electrification of Dahagram and Angarpota by solar energy. The PDB has already sent a request to the Energy Audit Cell of Ministry of Power to conduct energy audit in all the power plants. Recently, the Asian Development Bank launched the "Promotion of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Greenhouse Gas Abatement (PREGA)" Project. A National Implementation Committee (NIC) has been formed under the Power Ministry to carry out the tasks of PREGA, the sources said. Gas from ship boiler poses threat to ecology Nurul Amin, Chittagong, The Independent Sept. 16: Emission of poisonous gas from the boiler of a scrapped ship at Bhaityari Kadam Rasul area under Sitakunda Thana has posed a serious threat to the residents of the locality as well as the environment. Poisonous gas from a ship at Sylvia Ahmed Mustafa Shipyard at Jahanabad, Kadam Rasul, Bhatiyari was emitted yesterday noon during the dismantling of its gas boiler. Sources said, following the emission of poisonous gas the residents of the locality have been suffering from cough, skin rash etc. Several people have fainted due to inhaling of poisonous gas. Two dogs and some pigeons of the locality have died today due to poisonous gas. The plants and trees of the surrounding areas have been affected badly. The Thana Nirbahi Officer of Sitakunda visited the spot today to see for himself the damage caused by the emission of poisonous gas. It may be mentioned that the ship breaking industry that developed along the coastal areas of Sitakunda thana, stretching from Fouzderhat to Barabkunda, is posing a serious threat to the environment of both land and sea. During the scrapping of old ships, different types of poisonous chemicals including oil used in the vessels are spread in the yards. These poisonous chemicals and oils are also causing serious threat to the coast. It may be mentioned that the students of the Institute of Marine Science of Chittagong University had conducted a survey two years back at the coast of Sitakunda where the ships are usually scrapped. The result of the survey is ominous. The survey reveals that the soil of the locality contains heavy chemicals. It contains 0.5 to 2.7 ppm of mercury, 0.5 to 21.8 ppm of lead, 220 ppm of chromium, 0.3 to 2.9 ppm cadmium, 2.6 to 5.6 ppm of iron, 5.2 to 23.2 ppm of calcium, 6.5 to 10.57 ppm of magnesium. For this reason the eco-system of the coastal areas will be severely affected. Meanwhile, Sajid Hussain, Chief Engineer of Marine Academy, in his research article mentioned, "the major environmental concern is lack of containment facilities to prevent pollutants from entering water, ground and air in addition to the direct exposure of workers. Most of all Chinese breaking facilities offer the demolition process to be undertaken without beaching the vessel. This obviously imposes a lesser burden on the environment and allows the process to be monitored to a higher level." He mentioned that ship recycling as opposed to Shipbuilding is obviously an integral part of shipping. During 70s it wasn’t a matter of concern because of a few ships used to be scrapped. Now there is a new dimension, with growing concern about the environmental and social conditions of the ship disposal facilities, principally in the Indian sub-continent. There have been accusations of infringements of the "Vessel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal," and graphic "film coverage" of unprotected workers in disposal yards dismantling contaminated vessels by hand. The whole issue has become highly charged and the situation is complex. Ship scrapping is a labour-intensive industry, and, therefore, it is concentrated where labour costs are low. Unfortunately, underdeveloped countries are better markets for the recyclable materials. Bangladesh is dependent on ship-breaking for its domestic steel requirements. With no domestic metal ore mining, and little raw material sources for industry, the country is hungry for scrap. Bangladeshi Ship recycling industry’s supply of scrap iron to the steel mills alone substitutes import of about 1.2 M-tonnes of billets and other raw materials. The total saving for the country runs into millions of dollars. At present, the country’s 23 breaking yards spend around $150M importing scrap vessels, employing at least 25,000 workers. Fauzdarhat ship-breaking yard is the second largest facility in the world in terms of number of vessels scrapped and the leading breaking yard for large vessels, handling more than half of ships (approx. 10 million DWT) dismantled annually. It is reliably learnt that a total of four types of old vessels are scrapped in the shipyards of Sitakunda. The vessels are Turbine Tanker (TT), Motor Vessel (MV), Steam Vessel (SV) and Fishing trawler (FT). Of them, scrapping of Turbine Tanker is very much dangerous. The Department of Environment Pollution alleged that almost all the owners of the ship breaking yards do not follow the rules and regulations of the government regarding the pollution of environment. The concerned Environment Pollution Department alleged that the ship breaking industry along the coast of Sitakunda had been seriously affecting the environment. According to the Explosive department in Chittagong, the owners of the ships were grossly violating the rules and regulations of the government regarding the scrapping of the ships at their respective shipyards. The officials of the department disclosed that the owners are bound to make the ship ‘gas free’ that costs to the tune of taka 40 lac to 50 lacs. But the owners always push the poor workers at the risks of their lives to save money. As a result the poor workers are exposed to hazards. A total of 90 vessels were scrapped this year producing over 15 lakh metric tons of scrapped iron, according to Bangladesh Ship Breaking Association. Over 40,000 workers are directly engaged in the ship breaking industry while over 10 lac people are indirectly dependent on this industry. The ship breaking industry is fetching to the tune of taka 600 crores revenue income annually, the Association leaders confirmed. The ship breaking industry started in our country in 1971. But it flourished since 1980 with a huge involvement of man and money. Presently, over 15 lac tons of scrapped iron are produced by scrapping about 80 to 90 ships in 30 ship yards situated over 20 miles along the coast of Sitakunda from Fouzderhat to Sitakunda. With the raw materials of the industry over 300 re-rolling mills were grown in different areas of the country, having most of them in Chittagong. Different types of industries dependent on the raw materials of the scrapped iron were set up in the country like re-rolling mills, welding workshops and furniture shops, etc. The furniture, electrical goods and other articles are also available in the ship. ISP Assoc’s symbolic strike today Staff Reporter, The Independent The Internet Service Providers (ISP) Association of Bangladesh will observe a symbolic strike from 12pm to 12:30pm today demanding free access to the VOIP (Voice Over Internet Phone) for ISP holders of the country immediately. The Association has requested ISP providers to keep the Internet services of the country closed during the strike. But emergency online services like banking, medical transcription and online data entry will remain out of the purview of the strike. Du Correspondent, The Independent The Education Day will be observed today in the city as elsewhere across the country.Different student organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes including discussion, procession and rally in the city on the occasion. To mark the day, Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), students’ wing of the Awami League, will organise a discussion meeting at the Engineers Institute in the city at 4pm today. The opposition leader Sheikh Hasina will be present at the meeting as chief guest. Bangladesh Chhatra Union (BCU) will announce an "alternative education commission" at 4pm at the Teacher Student Centre (TSC) Crossing of Dhaka University on the occasion and will take out a procession on the campus. Bangladesh Chhatra Federation will also bring out a procession and hold a rally at Muktangon in the city at 11 am. Samajtantrik Chhatra Front (BCF) will hold a rally at the foot of Aparajeyo Bangla of Dhaka University at 11 am. Biplobi Chhatra Moitri (BCM) will hold a rally on the Dhaka University campus in observance of the Education Day. To celebrate the day, Jatiya Chhatra Dhara will bring out a procession on the campus and hold a rally on the Dhaka University central library premises.
Highest allocation to depend on performances BSS, Dhaka, The
Daily Star "Highest allocation and other necessary supports for the REB like this year will continue in future. But the managerial efficiency and customers service must be improved further," he told the performance target agreement (PTA) meeting of REB at its Joarshahara headquarters here. REB Chairman Ziaul Islam Chowdhury presided. REB members and the general managers of all the PBSs attended. The target of each PBS's for the fiscal 2003-04 was approved in the meeting. REB is the financing and supervising body of the 67 PBSs that are distributing electricity in the rural areas under cooperative concepts. Launched in late eighties, the REB has already provided power connection to 38,414 villages ensuring access to electricity of 47,08,488 subscribers across the country. Though REB is entrusted with the responsibility to distribute electricity to the rural areas, recently it has taken that task of supplying power to some urban areas, especially where the system loss is very high. REB has already set a record of bringing down system loss at 15 per cent, lowest than other distributors like BPDB, DESA and DESCO, power ministry sources said. Iqbal Mahmood asked the general managers of PBSs to ensure better customers service. "If needed, snap illegal connections," he directed them. Referring the to last week's fire at two separate sub-stations at Mirpur in the capital and Jamalpur, he asked the GMs to take precautionary measures to avoid any untoward incidents. He also asked them to create awareness among the masses to check theft of equipment, including transformers.
Dhaka went to Cancun with wrong agenda Star Report,
The Daily Star By taking up wrong issues, Bangladesh failed to highlight its own interest, which was gaining market access with simplified rules of origin, they said. Movement of natural persons was not the right agenda for Bangladesh to pursue in the changed global scenario, while farm subsidy was basically a concern for the African nations. But, the economists said, Bangladesh being the coordinator of the least developed countries (LDCs) took a strong position on such issues. Zaed Bakht of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies said Bangladesh's role as the coordinator of LDCs did not work at all in Cancun. Bangladesh could not even follow up on Dhaka Declaration. On the other hand, the bloc of ACP (Africa, Caribbean, and the Pacific countries) held series of meetings on their issues, farm subsidy in particular. The Dhaka Declaration was adopted on a 'give-and-take' basis but the issue of market access did not figure prominently although it is the prime concern for Bangladesh. Agricultural subsidy was not the issue of Bangladesh. If subsidy in agriculture is reduced or withdrawn, Bangladesh will suffer at the initial stage since it is a food-deficit country, Bakht said. "So, Bangladesh should not have taken a strong position on this issue. The US and EU will be forced to reduce farm subsidy at one stage and India, Brazil, China and African countries will be benefited," he said. Bakht said it has been said that movement of natural persons was included in the revised Cancun declaration, which should not be overplayed. "When rich countries are not giving market access to products of the LDCs, how can we expect they would allow our semi-skilled manpower?" he asked. "It is unthinkable that the US will allow free movement of labour from any Muslim country after the September 11." Sazzad Zahir, former secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association, said the failure at the Cancun conference was expected. "The mini-ministerial meet at Montreal gave signal of what was to come in Cancun. But people were given a wrong impression." The interest of the developing countries like India, Brazil, China was not at par with the interest of the LDCs. Besides, the LDCs bloc was divided. "When we face difficulty in defining our interest at the country-level, it is very difficult to define the interest of the LDCs as a whole," he said. Referring to Bangladesh's being the LDCs coordinator, Zahir said: "We have to assess now whether we have adequate intellectual and administrative resources to engage ourselves in so many issues." Former Secretary and Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva M Anwar Hashim said Cancun is not the end of the road. The setback of Cancun could be reversed once both developed and poor nations work together to build a better future, he noted. He however said the global trading system should be based on justice, equity and consensus. Cancun should be a lesson for future multilateral trading arrangement. "All the members of the World Trade Organisation should start cooperate with instead of confronting each other. A better understanding between rich and poor countries could only yield a positive new world order," he told The Daily Star yesterday. "Let us be cautiously optimistic that an agreement will be signed in the near future," he hoped.
Govt okays biggest pry edn overhaul Rejaul Karim
Byron, The Daily Star "It is the biggest ever programme for primary education to be implemented in phases with government and donor funds," Tahmina Hossain, secretary of the Primary and Mass Education Division, told The Daily Star. The new programme will strengthen monitoring and decentralise the administrative power in primary education. Besides, officials will get more power to reinforce supervision by providing local and international consultants, said Tahmina. The plan, "Primary Education Development Programme", will be implemented at a cost of Tk 4,933 crore -- Tk 3,699 crore (equivalent to $639 million) of the amount to be provided by donors. As many as 35,000 schoolteachers will be appointed, with about 3,500 teachers to be recruited this fiscal under the new project that also aims at poverty alleviation, sources said. Currently, there are 78,126 government primary schools run by about 3.60 lakh teachers. Most primary schools are at present running in two shifts and the plan will minimise workload on teachers and reduce schooling to one shift after implementation, said Tahmina. Besides teacher recruitment, the government will appoint another 3,500 people as officials under the project that also envisages setting up new school buildings, reconstructing and improving existing schools, supplying free textbooks and training teachers. The Executive Committee for National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project, to be implemented by June 2009, at a meeting with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the chair. The project outlines Tk 662 crore in cost for new teachers, Tk 1,947 crore for infrastructure, Tk 18 crore for transportation, Tk 176 crore for furniture, Tk 33 crore for departmental office decoration and computerisation, Tk 118 crore for consultants and Tk 1,976 crore for other expenditures. The government will build 30,000 new classrooms, eight lakh benches, 1.65 lakh chairs and 1.12 lakh tables, purchase 63,000 tons of paper to print textbooks and teachers' guides and eight jeeps, eight microbuses and 1,984 motorcycles. Planning ministry sources said the World Bank will provide $150 million and the Asian Development Bank another $100 million in loans for the 'approach-based' project. The UK's Department for International Development will give a grant of $150 million, the European Union another $100 million, the Netherlands $50 million, Norway $40 million, Sweden $29 million and Canada $20 million. |
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