Padma Multipurpose Bridge: What is going on?

Padma multipurpose bridge (PMB) project was a much weighted issue in the election manifesto of the incumbent Awami league led government. The 6.15 km long bridge that would connect around 60 million people in the country’s south-east to Dhaka and the rest of the nation is not only the single largest infrastructure project for any Bangladeshi government, but also for the World Bank’s. The project involves construction of about 6.15 km main bridge at Mawa- Janjira Corridor with River Training Works (RTWs) 6 km at Mawa Site and 12 km at Janjira Site. This project was pledged to be completed in the tenure of this government. But the government has only about 12 months to be expired on and yet the drama or suspense is going on and the future of this bridge is still uncertain. At a very earlier stage of this project, the estimated budgeted cost was $1.40 billion and then a revised estimation shows an upward budget of $2.9 billion owing to rising costs of construction materials and other factors. The four major financiers of this project were the World Bank (WB), manila based ADB, Japan based JICA and Jeddah based IDB with respective funding of $1.2 billion, $615 million, $400 million, and $ 140 million. The project was supposed to contain Bridge End Facilities (BEF) at both sides, 5 resettlement sites, railway line with stations and docking facilities, high voltage power and high pressure gas transmission lines, optical fiber cable, and necessary relevant activities. According to a forecast by the Asian Development Bank the much sought Padma Bridge will provide benefit to 30 million people directly and boost Bangladesh’s GDP by 1.2 percent, once completed.

*A Night view of the proposed Padma Bridge.

Subsequently, at a time when WB suspended and later cancelled the funding with a material allegation of corruption and graft, other lenders remained cordial but did not come forward without the participation of WB. But the government insisted their innocence and termed everything as a misunderstanding. The allegation of ministerial corruption and wrong-doing is nothing new for Bangladesh. In this backdrop, a question might arise that if the World Bank evidence is so innocuous, if everyone involved in the project are monk like innocent and WB misunderstands the government then what’s stopping the Bangladesh government from releasing the evidences. Besides that, there remain some questions to be answered and some issues to be cleared.

When WB showed an obvious disregard and put up some conditions for reinstate financing then our prime minister took it as resentment to our sovereignty and pledged to finance the project from our own capacity. Then a huge appreciation was received from the whole county people with some bad issues as well. Though the own financing has a risk of putting our economy in a vulnerable position but the people was happy from their emotion. On the other hand, as about three-fourths of the cost of the bridge will have to be paid in foreign currency and it is not sustainable by self-financing, our finance minister simultaneously insisted that without WB, the project is a dream. Hence, a clear disharmony, disagreement and mis-coordination were observed in the cabinet.

 Sometimes, our PM alleges the involvement of Dr. Muhammad Yunus in influencing the WB funding as a row persists on the issue of Grameen Bank. As it is well-known that, Dr. Yunus attended Vanderbilt University, USA and maintains an amiable relationship with Hillary Clinton; hence, there may be a conception that Dr. Yunus could influence the WB funding through his lobbying. Recently, our finance minister alleged Dr. Yunus for sluggish pace of foreign investment and then withdrew the statement. Nobel laureate Dr. Yunus is worldwide respected person for his concepts of microfinance and social business. So, the altercation between government and such a respected person undermines our image as a nation. So, if there is any fact of his involvement then that should be substantively proved through a probe and revealed publicly. If not, the issue of alleging him for everything must be seriously waived.

When World Bank came back to this project on condition, government agreed to implement WB’s conditions. Adviser Dr. Mashiur’s dilemma in the media to go on leave and no proclamation from PM’s office about his leave has created much comedy and gave issues to opposition to criticize the government. Minister Abul Hossain’s resignation when media is busy with the funeral of prominent writer Humayun Ahmed, the reshuffle of cabinet and announce that every minister was very successful to their job actually creates humor and dissatisfaction to the people’s mind. Hence, to compromise with the WB by agreeing with its conditions without any through probe against the accused is an ethical defeat of the government. The UK based magazine ‘The Economist’ humiliated our country’s image by publishing some news negatively. The Wall Street Journal and international newspapers often publishes news on Padma Bridge and WB issues focusing on the corruption and graft and finishes the report with a conclusion of our corruption records of the past. Consequently, as a nation it is very much humiliating and disgraceful to us.

Very recently, chairman of the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) insisted that the inquiry team found substantial clues to corruption conspiracy regarding appointment of a consultant for the PMB project. In this context, the government seems to be gradually turning off its focus from construction of the Padma Multipurpose Bridge Project within its tenure, realizing that the graft-related dilemma with the World Bank (WB) is unlikely to be resolved shortly. This state of deadlock is substantiated by the failure to bring any positive result by the government on the sideline of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) conference in Tokyo. So, general people are in dark about the latest development of much sought PMB project.

The major portion of our annual development budget is donor-funded. Thence, to overcome these deadlock situations in future the government should earnestly try to reach in a position where we ourselves can manage the fund from our economy to build such big infrastructures. But, at the last, if I ask what is going on in PMB project, what the answer will be from the authority concerned. 

A abridged and edited version of this writing was Published : Sunday, 02 December 2012, The Financial Express, Bangladesh

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Business is losing social values and ethics

From the dawn of civilisation human is involved with business. In the name of barter trade, mutual exchange on account and many other forms of business facilitated men to survive in the society with the needful. With the passage of time business crossed the borders of villages, cities, and even countries. From the early twentieth century, the concepts, postulations, and theories about business developed; and in western countries, especially the USA, business and business administration are inducted as subjects to be researched and learned. From 1900-1970, with the rise and fall of capitalism, communism, and socialism; and now in the ages of mixed economy, the definition and concepts of business have undergone significant modifications. 

Business had been defined in many fashions in last hundred years. According to modern concepts, an activity will be called 'Business' when it runs after profit, adds some value to the society and it must carry ethics. These three conditions are three pillars of the legitimacy of business. Past economic theories stressed much on profit maximisation but the modern outlook is different and for them the profit is only secondary. Today business is regarded as a social institution forming an integral part of social system.With the initiation of globalisation, the businesses across the world are so interconnected that the wind of recession of any economy can affect the world economy easily. In our country, after 1990s the businesses-- both public and private have expanded considerably. In last 30 years many industries have been grown to maturity while many others are still growing. But some recent events indicate that business is losing social values and not practicing ethical standards as expected. 

Very recent Hallmark group and Sonali Bank scam of almost Tk 40 billion is the burning example of under-applied ethics. According to newspaper reports, the corruption continued for the last three years. The top brass of the bank completely failed to perform their duties and swindled. The Hallmark also coerced and adopted unethical ways to get the loan. In the recent collapse of stock market the institutional investors showed very disapproving behaviour. They were equally responsible for making the bubble and burst. Their withdrawal of so much money at a time from market harmed the individual investors most. The recent scams of so-called multi level marketing (MLM) like Destiny and Unipay2U fraudulently collected billions of taka from general people. Already Unipay2U is vanished and Destiny is under probe and trying to avoid apprehension by the law enforcers. 

Another business, popularly called 'click business', exploited many innocent people by misguiding them. Showing the opportunity of earning money without labour, a company called 'Dolancer' looted Tk 2.0 billion recently and ran away. Land grabbers are so powerful in the city that not only they are grabbing governmental lands but also sometimes private lands by threatening the legal owners. They are executing these illegal schemes by appointing local terrorists and paying kickbacks to the law enforcers. Sometimes they are backed by influential political leaders. These land grabbers have the signboard of business but never show social values and hardly exert ethical behaviour. To exploit the best opportunity many businesses do not consider the environment issue. The city's residential areas have lost residential nature. Some textiles, tanneries, manufacturing industries are operating their businesses at the heart of the capital city. They continuously are polluting the environment and rivers of this city. The mighty 'Buriganga' has lost the status to be named as river. Consequently, in the latest livability ranking by The Economist, Dhaka has got the last place out of 140 cities of the world. Last year it was ranked as second last. 

The multinational and local big companies are exploiting the benefits of the third world. They are taking advantage of cheap labour, lack of consciousness about environment issues, uneducated and ignorant people. How much the society is receiving from them is an issue to ponder. Some banks provide education scholarship to students from their corporate social responsibility. It is really commendable, but over publicising them is how much justifiable is a question. The cost of advertising would support many more students. The luxurious initiative of haunting beauty with a lavish budget by some multi-national companies (MNC) also come under scrutiny when it is found that many brilliant students cannot manage funding of education owing to poverty. 

All these events involve businesses and corporations. These show an obvious lacking of ethics and social values. As large amount of resources are concentrated in the business sector, it is supposed to play a leading role in augmenting the material and social welfare of a nation. Though business is an artificial entity and is seen like a person, it is operated by a group of human beings. Hence, the disharmony between business and social value, ethics ultimately means the society is losing values. 

The term 'Corporate Citizenship' is also commonly used to refer to the moral obligations to the society. This implies that, like an individual, corporate shall be guided by some social norms. Against this backdrop, business should exert high level of ethics and must exercise 'Social Audit' which will evaluate how a business discharges social responsibilities.

This article was published in The Financial Express, Views & Opinion, September 23, 2012

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Vulnerable Bangladesh: Water Insecurity

Considering geographic, topographic, demographic and socio-economic characteristics, Bangladesh is regarded as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. The affects of climate change, sea level rise, enhanced monsoon precipitation, water crisis, power shortage, higher temperature have exacerbated the problems that already impede thedevelopment of Bangladesh. Weighing the scale and magnitude of the problems the water crisis and insecurity is the most important issue for Bangladesh in short as well as long run. Bangladesh will face severe challenges in the coming decades if it doesn't pay superior attention in this issue. Bangladesh is called the land of river and canal. Most of the principal rivers are borned at Himalaya and then flows in Bangladesh through other countries (India/China/ Nepal/ Tibet) and ends at the Bay of Bengal. The three major rivers of Bangladesh are Ganges, Meghna and Brahmaputra and the river basin of this big three is around 64% in India, 18% in China, 9% in Nepal and 3% in Bhutan (Rafiqul Islam, "A ticking time- bomb" in Dhaka Courier, Sep, 2010, Vol. 27, and p.17).

As Bangladesh is surrounded by India from three sides, naturally there are some disputes about sharing of water of trans-boundary rivers. Although Bangladesh has 54 major trans- boundary rivers with India but there is only one ambiguous water sharing treaty on the Ganges river signed on December 12, 1996, where India removed the guarantee and arbitration clause in getting of minimum water. The water of river is a divine gift from the almighty. Human life is completely dependent on water and actually the water of river is not a matter of sharing. In Western Europe and North America the countries do not share the water rather they utilize, take care and make development of the trans-boundary rivers on the basis of mutual agreement. But there is hardly an amiable understanding with India in 40 years after liberation. In that time India had taken the advantage and utilized the big share of water by breaching the international laws about river. As Bangladesh has many trans-boundary rivers with India and India is in the upper position therefore they have some comparative advantage.

River Teesta at the time of dry season

 

India have constructed almost 35 water diversion projects on the upper Ganges to divert water at other places in India in the name of extending irrigation facility before the flow of water reaches farakka. For this reason the amount of water in farakka is in declining and the share of water for Bangladesh is affected nastily. India started construction of farakka dam without any understanding with newly freed Bangladesh and completed the construction in 1974, then they launched the dam on an experimental basis but dramatically it is active till now and their experiment never stopped. For this reason thedownstream of Padma river in Bangladesh is seriously hampered and the agricultural sectors are damaged harshly in absence of adequate water.

Now-a-days India has planned to construct several dams in major international rivers to divert water on their land without any negotiation with Bangladesh. In a recent move Indian govt. has drastically changed the flow of trans-boundary Rivers by constructing embankments on Muhuri, Kacchua, Fulchari, Chhagalnaya and many other places in Tripura. Tipaimukh dam is another threat to Bangladesh. Proposed Tipaimukh project on the trans-boundary Barak river in Manipur state will have adverse impact in the flow of Surma and Kushiara, which are the principal source of meghna. The consequence of Tipaimukh dam will be so destructive that the Sylhet- Shunamganj area will be desert and agriculture of that area will be seriously damaged. Former UN water expert and visiting faculty of BRAC University told in meeting that the water dispute with india is as old as the inception of Bangladesh and if india will implement the project (Tipaimukh), the downstream of Meghna river will lose its water flow and the country will gradually turn into desert amid acute water crisis. The Teesta water sharing issue has recently added a new extent to the old disputes. During the dry season, especially beginning in September and going up to March, Bangladesh requires the Teesta waters for agriculture. So, there is an urgent need for an agreement of Teesta water sharing with India, although, during the dry season, flow of the Teesta goes down to anywhere between 5,000 and 6,000 cusecs while the demand for water by Bangladesh and India are 8,000 cusecs and 21,000 cusecs respectively (Editorial, The Daily Star, January 12, 2010.) Now we get 39% share of the water and we are demanding 50-50 while West Bengal Prime Minister Mamata Banarjee wants to give us 25% share in signing treaty. It is not only embarrassing to us but also insulting.

According to water experts, the whole world is seriously concerned about conserving their water resources for water security where Bangladesh is destroying its surface and underground water; this will ultimately damage Bangladesh in the long run. A recent report of strategic foresight group titled "The Himalayan challenge: Water security in Emerging Asia" stated, "A decrease in water supply by up to 22 percent in next two decades, rise in sea level and increase in population might push Bangladesh to the risks of food insecurity, outbreak of water-borne diseases and loss of biodiversity. Water availability on per capita cubic metre basis is estimated to decline from 2150 at present to 1860 in 2030 in case of China, from 1730 to 1240 in case of India, from 7320 to 5700 in case of Bangladesh, from 8500 to 5500 in case of Nepal." India should consider the reality of Bangladesh too. They expect the transit from us but in return they will give nothing or something too little is not a good idea. The logical sharing of water and transparency in inter-relations between Bangladesh and India will lead to a good mutual understanding we hope or who knows the third world war may happen for water in the coming century.

This article was published in The News Today, 09/09/2011 Click Here to read newspaper version