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Saturday, October 04, 2003
Environmentalists step up lobby campaign v. coal plant
By Stephen Capillas
ENVIRONMENTAL cause groups abroad stepped up lobbying efforts on German and Japanese export credit institutions that are being "courted" by the government to finance the controversial 210 MW Mindanao coal fired power plant.
In their letters sent to these finance groups, Barbara Happe, a campaigner on Financial Institutions in Urgewald-Germany and Hozue Hatae of Friends of the Earth-Japan called on these institutions to more "prudently review the project."
They said a more thorough project review should be done in terms of the fulfillment of national and international standards and good practices, and the respect for rights and interests of affected local groups.
These environmental advocates also issued an e-mail to all non-government organizations (NGOs) around the world to support their campaign amid reports that German and Japanese export agencies are considering to fund the project.
Their letter was addressed to Mr. Hans W. Reich, board chairman of Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau; Mr. Kyosuke Shinozawa, governor of the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC); and Hidehiro Konno, chairman and CEO of Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.
Hatae, Public Finance and Environment Program Campaigner of
Friends of the Earth-Japan and Happe told these officials that opposition to the project has been mounting.
They cited groups like the People's Camp that voiced concerns that the Mindanao coal fired plant project would pose adverse health and environmental damage to surrounding communities.
Ash samples
The coal plant project is to be established in Villanueva town in Misamis Oriental.
In pushing for the review, Hatae and Happe cited several studies done by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the University of Exeter in England on four coal plants in the country to justify their point.
They said ash samples of the four coal-fired power plants in the country that is either financed in part or backed by JBIC revealed high levels of mercury and other heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, and lead) in the effluents.
Because of this, they said the Senate conducted an ongoing investigation on the ill-effects and health hazards posed by the coal-fired power plants.
As such, they said the question of constructing a new coal-fired power plant is "therefore highly controversial at the national level."
The two then urged these institutions to first wait for the investigations before deciding whether or not to finance the project.
They said it is highly possible the research will conclude that existing coal plants have contributed to hazardous environmental damage in the Philippines.
"We urge you... to take seriously your commitments to sustainable development and not provide any loans or insurance services for projects that are likely to magnify the already existing environmental problems of the country," they said.
In-depth
The two advocates also said local environment groups are also concerned about the high amount of discharges of thermal effluents that would be discharged from the power plant into Macajalar Bay.
They said the fishery, as well as the marine ecosystem of Macajalar Bay, which contains a fish sanctuary (the Agutayan Reefs), will be adversely affected by the discharge of the thermal effluents.
More than 3000 households are said to be dependent on the fishery in the Macajalar Bay for their livelihood.
Despite this, Hatte and Happe voiced their concern that agencies like the German public bank Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (KfW), which recently said it was convinced that the proposed project would fulfill all the relevant international standards.
Other agencies like the Japanese ECAs, JBIC and NEXI, are currently undertaking review processes on the project.
They said it is quite unclear if the agencies concerned are ready to implement and respect their new own environmental guidelines which state that projects supported by them have to comply with international standards.
Because of this, they are urging the agencies to make careful in-depth reviews of the project and to conduct fact-finding missions that would source information not only on project proponents but from from local residents and NGOs. SC
(October 4, 2003 issue)
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