14 January 2008
Citing violations of five of the Asian Development Bank's (ADB) own policies, non-governmental organizations from around the world have petitioned the ADB to discontinue its pre-appraisal of the Phulbari Coal Project and remove it from the funding pipeline.
Over 60 non-governmental organizations have signed a letter sent to the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) calling for the institution to discontinue its pre-appraisal due diligence of the controversial Phulbari Coal Project, and to have the project removed from the ADB's funding pipeline.
The letter, dated January 11, 2008, states that the Project "is in violation of the ADB Energy Policy (1995), Indigenous Peoples Policy (1998), Involuntary Resettlement Policy (1995), Environment Policy (2002), and Public Communication Policy (2005)."
The Phulbari Coal Project is scheduled for ADB Board approval in March, 2008. If approved, the project would allow Global Coal Management (PLC), a UK-listed company, to operate an open pit mine that would extract 15 million tonnes of coal/year from Phulbari, a key rice producing area that contributes to the food basket of Bangladesh. An Expert Committee Report (September 20, 2006) commissioned by the Government of Bangladesh found that over 129,000 persons would be directly affected and 220,000 persons would be indirectly affected. GCM, through its Bangladeshi subsidiary, Asia Energy, proposes to mine for over 30 years.
Read the full text of the letter:
Joint NGO letter to Asian Development Bank Board of Directors calling for ADB to pull out of Phulbari Coal Project January 11, 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 87 KB)
Find out more about this controversial project on BIC's Phulbari Coal Project problem project page