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Story: Kultida Samabuddhi
Photos: Bansit Bunyaratavej |
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The Issue: Gulf Power Generation and Union Power Development, as well as the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) plan to construct three coal-generated power plants in Prachuap Khiri Khan. The first two independent power producers (IPP) have already passed their first 2001 deadline, and EGAT has consistently prolonged the construction of its own power plant. Within the past five years, they have only been able to prepare the sites in Prachuap Khiri Khan for construction, due to strenuous protests from the local residents of Baunauk, Hinkrud, and Tabsakae...
The Pros: A Union Power Development report regarding the Hinkrud Power Plant Project states that the local residents of Hinkrud will undoubtedly benefit from a power plant in their vicinity, and point to the immediate creation of jobs resulting from the construction of the power plant - 3,000 locals will be employed during the construction phase alone. It is also expected that the power plant employees and their families will inject much-needed money into the local economy. In the long term, the construction of the power plant will enhance possibilities for the further development of industrial zones as targeted by national developmental policy and specific development plans for Thailand's western seaboard. |
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The Cons: The negative health and environmental effects of the creation of large amounts of such toxins as ash, sulfur-dioxide, carbon-monoxide, carbon-dioxide, and nitrogen-oxide from the burning of coal is the most disconcerting of the cons. What the creation of such toxins will do to local agricultural produce, and thus the livelihood of the majority of the local residents who are engaged in agriculture activities, is yet a further concern. Then there is the question of the construction of a seaport to accommodate large cargo ships, added to the liquid and gaseous wastes produced by the burning of coal - how can the local fish population survive in such conditions?
Development must always be represented in a well-balanced equation of all of the variables. The endorsement of any project in the name of development must always consider the negative effects of such development, and in the long term, insist upon the sustainability of such development. That the local residents have initiated the debate on whether these plants should be constructed at all, is an important reaffirmation of our need to make development responsible...
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