Financial Times - Displaced Norochcholai families get furnished houses, land

Displaced Norochcholai families get furnished houses, land

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), in a rare newspaper advertisement placed before President Mahinda Rajapaksa inaugurated work at the controversial Norochcholai coal power plant, has sought to explain the benefits of the project to the people in the area and the country at large.

It said that 70 families displaced would be provided a furnished 500 sq-foot house on a new 2-acre settlement being created for this purpose.

The CEB advertisement in a Sunday newspaper said, “Job opportunities for all categories; development of infrastructure and development of commerce”. It said the low sulpher coal emits Sulpher dioxide quantity which is on par with all prevailing standards.

“The emission of Nitrogen Oxides will be minimised by using advanced coal burners in which heat can be collected, 99.5 % of the fly ash will be sold to manufacture cement while the temperate of discharged cooling water will be limited to seven degrees celsius over the inlet water temperature,” the advertisement said allaying fears of an adverse impact on the environment.

Norochcholai, a sleepy agriculture town more than 100 km northwest of Colombo, sprang into existence for the rest of Sri Lanka when residents backed by the church and environmentalists repeatedly carried out protest campaigns opposing the proposed coal power plant coming up there.

Since the early 1990s governments have been reluctant to go ahead with the project despite a major power crisis in the country until President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to get it started with the laying of a foundation stone.

The CEB said existing ground water resources won’t be used at the power plant while contaminated water from ‘many resources’ would be purified separately and released to the sea without affecting the environment.

“By spreading water on coal piles and also by growing a green belt around the power plant the movement of dust will be completely controlled,” the CEB said.

On benefits to relocated families, the CEB said the 70 families would get a 300-perch land at the same relocated site for agriculture purposes while land from the coastal line and fishing equipment will be provided for fishermen.

It said people from the area would be given priority in jobs for the construction of the power plant.

The CEB said the coal would be imported from Australia, South Africa or Indonesia by ship and brought to a special 4-km long jetty being constructed at the beach site.

“Due to the on-sea construction no harm of effect will occur to St Anne’s Church,” the advertisement said.

Chamber commends commencement of coal power plant

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) recently commended the government for launching the construction phase of the Coal Power Plant in Norochcholai.

It said the public as well as trade and industry interest groups are encouraged by “the political will and commitment displayed to address a key bottleneck on power generation that retarded the growth of the economy and consequently the progress of the country.” The chamber said similar bottlenecks have for too long been retarding the capacity of governments, to meet the rising expectations of the public, to achieve a better standard of living and expressed its appreciation over the practical decisions taken by the Ministry of Power & Energy to address the humanitarian concerns of the few that are affected in locating the power plant at Norochcholai.

“We strongly believe that though belated, the implementation of the project will add 900 mw to generation capacity in three phases of 300 mw each with the first phase coming into operation by 2010. This project will enable the generation of reliable power at a greatly reduced cost to government as well as avert power crisis as has periodically happened in the recent past. This will also reduce the risk of an over-dependence on just two forms of power by adding a third source of power generation through coal.”

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