Introducing Socio-Environmental Management Policy
Guidelines for the financing of Electric Power Projects in Bangladesh.
Abu Taher Mohammad Kamrul Kabir Bhuiyan
Masters Student at Graduate School of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Tsukuba

1. Introduction:
The energy related infrastructures in Bangladesh is quite small and insufficient, which is also
not well managed by anybody concerned. Even up to last decade the energy was not theprime priority sector for the government. The per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh
is 163kg which is one of the lowest amounts in the world (World Bank, 2010). Still today
half of the country’s total energy consumption is dependent on wood, animal waste, cropresidue, leaves and some other noncommercial energy sources. As of following chartbiomass is the dominant as primary energy consumption source followed by natural gas, oil,coal etc.( Tamim et.al. 2005).

Natural Gas
35.10%

49.20%

Oil
Coal
Hydro

12.50%

Biomass
Solar PV

3.20%

Wind

Historically ancient Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh started using of electricity from1901 introduced by the then Nawab of Dhaka. Later from 1933 commercially the residentsof Dhaka city started using electricity (DPDC 2011). After the liberation of Bangladesh
electricity became popular as energy source for living and industrial purposes which
created huge demand of electricity.
1.1 Background of the Study:
Electricity is the major source of power for country's most of the economic activities.
Bangladesh’s electric generation capacity was around 5.5 GW in February 2011;. Only 47%of the population has access to electricity (BPDB 2011). Following figure will show theelectricity production trends after the liberation of Bangladesh in 19711Bangladesh is not much rich in natural resources. It has very small stock of oil and coal sofar but has wide reserve of natural gas. Therefore, most of the electric power plants are
established using the natural gas as raw material which is more than 88%. From following
figure we can see the raw materials that are using to generate at this moment in Bangladesh(MoF 2010).

Due to the increasing huge demands Government has planned to add 5000MW electricity inthe national grid within 2013. Basically as gas reserve is depleting authority is nowswitching to furnace oil and coal fired plants rather than gas fired. It is obvious that this will
require huge budget and government is unable to accommodate this, so they invited private
to come forward to resolve the crisis. Most of the private farms would go as public private
partnership (PPP) basis.
1.2 Objectives of the Study:
Thanks to government initiatives of facing the challenge of power a significant numbers ofsmall and medium power plants are established in last couple of years by the private sector
including on PPP basis. As these power plants are very crucial for the emerging economy of
the country but not free from significant social and environmental impacts which were notseriously addressed leaving necessary to establish a mechanism to determine and assess
future potential environmental and social impacts of electric power projects. It is very
difficult for the lone Government’s environmental agency to monitor and evaluate the socio-2

environmental impacts of these electric power projects due to the lack of proper laws andguidelines, expertise, man power, corruption etc. Again, most of these projects will befinanced by the banks or other financial institutions (FIs), so it would be meaningful to dothese socio-environmental impact assessments by these FIs under the regulations, guidanceand supervision of Central Bank of Bangladesh.
The research is opted to focus on the following issues:
1. To frame out a Social and Environmental Management policy guidelines for
FIs to finance electric power projects consistent with Bangladesh
Environmental and Social Assessment laws.
2. Apart from possible environmental impacts, the social impacts including landacquisition and involuntary resettlement issues are also considered.
2. Methodology:
This descriptive study is carrying out by reviewing the existing social and environmental
laws of Bangladesh. The related literatures those are already published in country andworldwide. Consultation with the stakeholders and by analysis of the gathered information.
3. Discussion:
Bangladesh is one of the least Carbon-Di-Oxide (CO2) emitting countries. The per capita
carbon emission is only 300kg in 2006-07(World Bank 2010). However, Bangladesh istrying to better environmental management by keeping the uptrend of economic activities.
The World Bank has estimated that Bangladesh loses around $1 billion per year due topower outages and unreliable energy supplies.
3.1 Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA): EIA will be done by the project entity
before starting of the project which has to be cleared by the Governmental
Environmental Agency. This EIA should be prepared by the third party recognizedenvironmental consultant.
3.2 Environmental Management Plan (EMP): An Environmental Management Plan, apart of Environment Management Guidelines basically is an implementation plan formitigation, protection and/or enhancement measures, which were alreadyrecommended in the EIA submitted by the project entity. It details:(a) The measures to be taken during the implementation and operation of a project toeliminate or offset adverse environmental impacts, or to reduce them to an
acceptable level.
(b) The actions needed to implement these measures.
3.3 Major Social and Environmental Concerns: The major environmental and social
impacts could be triggered due to implementation of electric power projects would be
as follows: Change of land use pattern; Involuntary resettlement issues;
 Surface and ground water;
 Ambient and indoor air pollution;3Land degradation;
Forest management issues; andFisheries management issues etc.

Apart from the wider social and environmental effects by fossil fuel burnt electric power
generation, The biggest effect of fossil fuel plants have overall is the emission of air
pollutants, particularly SOX, NOX , CO, CO2 , and hydrocarbons. Carbon monoxide, CO,carbon dioxide, CO2, and the hydrocarbons are the "greenhouse gases," believed to beresponsible for global warming. SOX and NOX produce acid when released into theatmosphere, leading to the production of acid rain. Following table list approximate amountsof airborne pollutants produced. Generally, air emissions are controlled by the use ofscrubbers and precipitators located at the plant. (Energy Foundation, 2007).
Power Plant Emissions (g/kWh)
Plant Type
Coal

CO
0.11

NOX
3.54

SO2
9.26

CO21090

Oil

0.19

2.02

5.08

781

Gas

0.20

2.32

0.004

490

Apart from these emissions, the noise and vibrations of the plants are also to be considered.
Other than these the heat that will released from the plant also need to be cooled down.
These emissions can be controlled by taking different measures.
3.4 Mitigation measures: Adequate mitigation measures have to taken in different
stages of project life cycle like design stage, construction stage and operation stage.
The pollution level would be different in every stage. Some major impacts andmitigation measures are as follows:
Air Quality
Bangladesh is predominantly dry country which starts huge dust during construction
phase, so it would be better to start construction in rainy season, of course it will depend
upon the soil properties. In operation stage the burning of fossil fuel will triggered theambient air pollution by generation of GHG gases and particulate matters which has tobe controlled and kept in acceptable level.
Water Quality
Surrounding surface water and ground water could be polluted both in construction stage andoperational stages. So adequate measures need to be taken to keep the water quality inacceptable level. The water should not be released to open stream or river without being
treated as it also may hamper the fisheries and crop production.
Ecology and Biodiversity:
The construction and operation of electric power plant may have significant impact onsurrounding ecology and biodiversity even in generation of green energy like hydro andsolar energy.

4Waste Water Treatment and Solid waste:
The waste water and solid waste that would generate from the establishment of electric
power plant should be treated. The waste water could be treated for reuse within the plantand it has to be maintaining the standard of the country before releasing to the natural ways.
Solid waste materials should be separated at a designated point within the plant prior todisposal in approved local authority waste disposal sites.
Domestic CDM
The electric power plant that will burnt fossil fuel must emit carbon-di-oxide which will
increase the global warming potentials of the country though Bangladesh is one of the least
CO2 emitting countries in the world. So, if domestic CDM can be introduced, the power
plant’s emitted CO2 could be purchased by the emission permitting agency
3.5 Institutional and Legal Framework: Environmental management in Bangladesh isregulated by following laws, rules and regulation and ‘Department ofEnvironment’(DoE) is the Governmental agency to look after these issues:




National Environmental Policy, 1992
National Environnemental Management Action Plan, 1995
Environnemental Conservation Act and Rules, 1995
National Conservation Strategy, 1992
National Water Policy, 2000
National Water Management Plan, 2001

4. Conclusion:
Bangladesh is a small and densely populated country, however very promising in recent
economic growth. The energy source and use always play an important role in potential
economic activities. In this sense, Bangladesh is very low energy consuming country andfacing a huge shortage of energy. If they can improve their energy production and use will
be very helpful for better economic development. So Government is going for establishmentof huge electric power projects, which are not free from adverse social and environmental
impacts that have to be seriously addressed. This became very difficult for the Governmental
agency alone, so in this study we proposed for separate socio-environmental policies forfinancial institutions that will finance for establishment of electric power projects in private
sector. However, this different approach must be consistent with the all laws and regulationof Bangladesh Government and will be flexible for further better modifications. We hope
this initiative will help address the adverse social and environmental impacts during thewhole life cycle of a project. From the view point of Central Bank these guidelines might
increase the potentiality of the FIs to finance this type of projects.
5. References:
Asian Development Bank. Environmental Assessment Report. Ministry of Power, Energy
and Mineral Resources for the Asian Development Bank (ADB, 2011.
World Bank. Bangladesh Country Environmental Analysis. World Bank, 2006.

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World Bank. Bangladesh Country Environmental Analysis. World Bank, 2010.
Tamim .M et.al., Energy and Sustainable Development in Bangladesh, Sustainable Energy
Watch, 2005.
Websites
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Ministry of Finance, Bangladesh
Bangladesh Power Development Board
Dhaka Power Distribution Company
Department of Environment
Bangladesh BankWorld Bank
Asian Development Bank6