The government will produce 4,000 megawatts of solar power within the next three months, 296 megawatts of it from Dhaka city alone, State Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Sheikh Faridul Islam said. He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar organised by the University of Dhaka and Stockholm University on Sunday (November 1). “Our initial target is to produce 10,000 megawatts of solar power,” he said.
“We will gradually raise solar capacity further, so that we can cut the use of fossil fuels and ensure clean, green energy,” he said.
He said the present government had inherited some coal-fired power plants from the previous government, where about 12,000 tonnes of coal are burned every day. There are also a large number of brick kilns across the country.
From this, it is easy to estimate how much black carbon is being emitted, he said.
Referring to government action against brick kilns, he said about 13 percent of the country’s total air pollution comes from brick kilns, which use high-sulphur coal. “Besides this, 200 kilns that use wood as fuel are being shut down, and we are introducing concrete blocks in their place to reduce pollution,” he said.
The state minister said a powerful syndicate was at work in the sector, which made the job hard, but the government was dealing with it professionally. Air quality cannot be improved without shutting brick kilns, he said.
On cross-border pollution, he said about 30 percent of Bangladesh’s air pollution crosses the border, because most of India’s heavy industry is set up in areas near the border. “This is a very sensitive diplomatic issue. So stopping this 30 percent of air pollution coming from a neighbouring country is genuinely difficult for us,” he said.
He said the government was giving weight to nature-based solutions in controlling air pollution. Mass tree planting, digging and re-excavating canals, and importing electric buses and cars, which the government has spoken of, are all parts of a nature-based response to air pollution, he said.
On river pollution, Sheikh Faridul Islam said more than 424 points had been identified on the Buriganga, Shitalakshya, Turag, Balu and Dhaleshwari rivers where toxic waste and polluted water flow straight into the rivers without treatment, including industrial waste, city corporation waste and discharge from Dhaka WASA and other service agencies. “We are working tirelessly to restore these priceless rivers and water bodies around Dhaka,” he said.
The prime minister’s adviser Mahdi Amin, the prime minister’s chief coordinator for the SDGs Dr A S M Abdul Awal and Swedish Ambassador Nicolas Weeks attended as special guests.
The seminar was chaired by Professor Abdus Salam, pro-vice-chancellor (academic) of the University of Dhaka, and Professor Orjan Gustafsson of Stockholm University’s Department of Environmental Science.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report