Impact assessment due to rural electrification in hill tract of Bangladesh for sustainable development

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Environmental impact assessment (EIA) of any project is essential for understanding the sustainability of the project. For sustainable development of hill tracts, electricity is inseparable. Like other parts of Bangladesh hill tracts districts felt increasing demand of electricity. In this paper an attempt has been taken to present the existing environmental condition and analysis the future environmental condition after implementation of project. Electrification will extend the length of the active day. Electrification will improve security (people's perception of safety and security) at the region. The elements of the project identified as components for analysis are chosen based on DOE's guideline. The study showed that 87% people say that they feel safer at night since being electrified. Impacts are classified on the basis of EPA's scaling and DOE, university's teachers, NGOs expert's opinions. Value more than 10 is classified significantly affected element of the project. In this paper advantages and disadvantages of the Electrification Project has been presented.

Water quality of Kaptai reservoir in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

“…Commonly occurring pollution sources in the lake were oil and fecal from water transportations and from all sorts of thrown materials including solid wastes by many unconscious visitors. Alam et al (2006) reported that dissolve oxygen in Kaptai reservoir ranged from 5 to 6 mg⋅L -1 for average value of the whole depth, which remained mostly uniform in different water depths in the rainy season. As the water surface warms up in the dry season, oxygen depletion occurs in the deeper layer up to a depth of 8 to 15 m, which again shows cooling effect from mid May through rainfall.…”

“…At present land use changes, urban human habitation, inland navigation, tourism activity, as well as major development scheme in terms of road, bridge and other construction work are greatly affecting this fresh water resource. Available published literature show that previous studies on Kaptai Lake were on physical and chemical limnology by Khan and Chowdhury (1994), macro-benthic invertebrate fauna by Khan et al (1996), population biology and environment of two carps by Azadi (1997), and environmental impact assessment by Alam et al (2006). Under the changed conditions and pressures over time in CHTs as described above, this study was undertaken to evaluate water quality of the reservoir.…”

Assessment of Temporal Variation of Water Quality Parameters and the Trophic State Index in a Subtropical Water Reservoir of Bangladesh

“…Previous research on Kaptai Lake included physical and chemical limnology by Khan and Chowdhury (1994), macro-benthic invertebrate fauna by Khan et al (1996), population biology and environment of two carps by Azadi et al (1997), and environmental impact assessment by Alam et al (2006). Although there are a few publications on the physical and chemical limnology of Kaptai Lake, a full study on the seasonal change of water quality (physical, chemical, biological, and anionic) parameters as well as the trophic status index (TSI) in Kaptai Lake is sorely lacking.…”

Design and Analysis of an AC Coupled Photovoltaic System for an Off-grid Community in Chittagong Hill Tracts

“…Although very recently, solar home systems have been introduced there, the electricity generation is far from sufficient to meet the ever-growing load demand. Hence, there is a dire need for establishing off-grid solar-powered plants to electrify these hilly areas [4].…”