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| Friday, 13 February 2004 |
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Coal power, governments and scapegoats by Nobert Manatunga Please permit me to reply "Norochcholai coal power project" by G. A. D. Sirimal appearing in the Daily News of January 22, 2004 to expose his blatant falsehood involving the President, the PM and the Bishop of Chilaw.
He has stated, "The governments of Chandrika Bandaranaike and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe both directed the authorities concerned to abandon the site at Norochcholai." "The important point of it is that many years have passed since the President having studied the project, rejected it. The truth as we all know, is that the Bishop refused to admit that he elected a promise from both political leaders - Chandrika Kumaratunga, the President, and Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Leader of the Opposition to abandon the project, taking advantage and opportunity of the Wayamba Provincial Council elections, and the general elections which followed. This was granted for obvious reasons." The fact that this was a baseless allegation on the part of Sirimal, to impute to the President, the Prime Minister, and the Bishop of Chilaw, false motives and intentions to bring them into disrepute in the eyes of the public, as political opportunities, will be manifestly clear and conclusively proved by a perusal of the "Wayamba Election Report" forwarded by the Bishop of Chilaw, Dr. Frank Marcus Fernando, to the President, on the immediate aftermath of the Wayamba elections in 1999. Here below I produce the Bishop's report forwarded to the President: "As Your Excellency is aware, priests, religious brothers, and sisters, as well as the lay faithful of our dioceses have been deeply perturbed and disappointed at the way the recent Provincial Council elections in the Wayamba were conducted. Your Excellency may not be fully aware of the unprecedented amount of thuggery, intimidation and ballot tampering that took place. We are not thinking in terms of party politics. When the previous government was in power and resorted to human right abuses, especially towards the latter part of its reign, the Catholic Church in our country raised its voice on numerous occasions. The Catholic Bishops' Conference, in some crucial documents, condemned abuses. We feel that similar abuses are taking place right now. Election related violence and fraud are unprecedented. As far as we are concerned, we shall raise our voice, no matter who is guilty of it. A perusal of this report will convince Your Excellency the tragedy and the farce that has been enacted in the so-called Wayamba election." The above report was given wide publicity in the secular press and the Catholic 'Messenger' of 28 March, 1999. E. Carlo Fernando, Chartered Civil Engineer, who has gained very wide experience in siting coal power plants since the inception of coal power studies in 1980 at Trincomalee, who was Consultant Engineer, CEB, with wide experience in planning and construction of hydropower projects since 1943, who has worked with James Lanerolle, CCS, former Sec. Ministry of Power and Energy and Chairman CEB, and also CEB Chairman Arjun Deraniyagala, and who has been in CEB, delegations to Rumania, Australia, India and the States from time to time on coal power study, has expressed his views on Norochcholai as follows: "For coal power projects factors to be considered are: (a) geology, (b) transmission, (c) water, (d) predictability of bringing fuel to the point, (e) social and environmental aspects. "When coal power generation is to depend on imported coal, what is most important is the harbour facilities to receive large quantities of coal. "Next comes the availability of fresh water. These criteria make Mawella the best site, next to Trincomalee, for the coal power project, and Norochcholai the worst. Availability of land and the quantum of people displaced are secondary considerations, but, in this regard too, Mawella is an excellent site." "When it was realised that setting up a coal power plant at Trinco was not possible due to the ethnic conflict, I identified Mawella/Kudawella bay for the project. A study funded by the ADB was carried out by Black and Vietch Inst. USA after examining the whole coastline and found Mawella as the best site for the project. A site confirmation study funded by an Anglo/Japanese/Australian Consortium arranged by the Sec. Ministry of Policy Planning and Implementation, was carried out. Alexander Gibb of UK did the study. They carried out a good number of field surveys - marine, topographic and geo-technical etc. and concluded Mawella bay is an excellent site for the project. The implementation schedule in this study indicated the first 150 mw set to be commissioned in 1996. "The educated trouble-makers organised the most disgusting protests against this project, and President Premadasa, misled by them, ordered the CEB to stop work. The Chairman, CEB, N. A. J. Perera, was furious at this order and even said that these people want to make Sri Lanka a "Banana Republic". There are vital factors which militate against Norochcholai, chief among which is the factor affecting the four kilometres long pier. The jetty also lies in the usual path of the cyclonic winds, such as the 150 km per hour cyclone of December 2000. A similar cyclone passed through that site in 1978." (Daily News paper March 5, 2001). The North/Western coastal belt is annually subject to severe cyclonic storms during four months of the year from November to February. In 1947 during the severe floods, the Indo-Ceylon ship that plied between Rameswaram and Talaimannar Pier, was landed ashore by the ferocious tidal waves and dashed against the palmyrah trees and boulders and rendered a complete wreck. Ever since, that ship stopped functioning from mid November to January every year. This ship had a complement of 950 passengers. The building of hundreds of pillars on a geologically unsuitable sea-bed and the massive conveyor belt resting on them to carry the coal from ship to plant, with the grave risks involved with the cyclonic storms peculiar to this coastal belt, in addition to many other adverse factors, led all the foreign experts and consultants to conclude the Norochcholai site as the most unsuitable. The Council of the Institution of Engineers, Sri Lanka, appointed a committee on coal power, comprising four reputed engineers, to report on the much disputed Norochcholai project. To quote the bottom line of their final report, ..."In the course of the deliberations of the Committee we pointed out that there were many problems associated with the Norochcholai site, in particular that of coal handling and the dire consequence thereof. We categorically stated that going ahead with the project might prove disastrous. We are therefore very surprised to see the institution claiming that all the engineers are agreed that the Government should go ahead with the Norochcholai project. In the circumstances we are compelled to express our contrary views on the matter." The internationally knowledgeable and widely experienced, ex-consultant engineer, E. Carlo Fernando has said, "It is certain that Sri Lanka's power system is in a hopeless state and the country is heading for a very serious power crisis if timely action is not taken now. What is taking place now is, rather than taking any constructive steps to solve the power crisis, the persons responsible for providing power are diverting their energies to find scapegoats - politicians, past CEB Chairmen and General Managers, Bishops, clergy and the like to blame them for their own shortcomings." The Bishop of Chilaw, Dr. Frank Marcus Fernando has never given his consent to this utterly unsuitable project, and he stands by his convictions. If this government or any other government insists on going ahead with it, inspite of all these adverse and negative factors and the heavy odds, they could by all means go ahead, and be answerable to the country and the people for adverse outcome and failure. The Bishop of Chilaw, Dr. Frank Marcus Fernando has had his final and unequivocal say on this issue, and no further involvement is called for. |
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