16 December 2008
A Mines and Communities (MAC) article spotlights two independent reports critical of the Phulbari coal mining project in northwest Bangladesh.
Reprinted here in full with permission from the Mines and Communities website.
UK Mining's "2008 AGM Season" ends this week, as London-listed GCM Resources (formerly Global Coal Management, and previously Asia Energy plc) defends one of the most criticised mining proposals of recent years: the Phulbari coal mining project in northwest Bangladesh.
Two independent reports, to be distributed at GCM's annual general meeting, reveal critical flaws in project planning that potentially threaten the health and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens.
"The project's Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is full of vague assurances," claims Roger Moody of Nostromo Research. "The managing company, GCM Resources plc, clearly has insufficient practical experience of a project of this magnitude."
The report, "Phulbari Coal: A Parlous Project", authored by Mr. Moody details the impacts the mine would have on both the quantity and quality of water available to local communities, the likelihood of uncontrolled acid rock drainage, the significant increase in emissions of airborne particulate matter, and the potential degradation of the world's largest wetland areas.
"GCM does not have any lawful contract for mining coal in Phulbari," says Professor Anu Mohammad, Member Secretary of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources in Bangladesh. "Moreover, after the community's unprecedented resistance against the Phulbari coal mine project, the government signed an agreement with the people to cancel all contracts with the company and to ban open-pit mining in the country. In Phulbari and in general throughout the country, people have issued a public verdict against the company; they have giving their lives to resist the company because of the disastrous nature of this project."
GCM Resources has been preparing the 6,000 hectare, open-cast coal mine in the northwest area of Bangladesh for over 3 years. Eighty percent of the land that would be taken for the project is agricultural land and would force the eviction, relocation and re-employment of at least 200,000 people.
"Land scarcity is a significant issue in this project," says Jennifer Kalafut from the International Accountability Project and author of "Phulbari Coal Project: An Assessment of the Draft Resettlement Plan Prepared by GCM Resources". "The project would turn tens of thousands of farmers into landless wage laborers. GCM Resources has provided no meaningful analysis or plans on how to prevent the impoverishment of those who will be displaced."
According to Richard Solly, Co-ordinator of the London Mining Network: "Phulbari is a splendid example of a project that should not go ahead. The fact that it is being proposed by a London-based company and has been supported by the British Government's Department for International Development shows why we in London have to increase pressure on companies and government to act responsibly."'
Sources:
Phulbari: A Parlous Project, prepared by Nostromo Research, November 12, 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 368 KB)
"Phulbari Coal Project: An Assessment of the Draft Resettlement Plan Prepared by GCM Resources", International Accountability Project and Bank Information Center, August 2008 (IAP website)
For more information:
Phulbari Coal Project page (BIC website)