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| Sunday, 12 December 2004 |
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Kotmale Project still in turbulence by Shanika Sriyananda The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has agreed to continue with financial support to the 150 mega watts Upper Kotmale Hydropower Project (UKHP), P. Weerahandi, Secretary to the Ministry of Power and Energy told the 'Sunday Observer'. According to Weerahandi, implementation of UKHP, which was put off on several occasions following strong opposition from environmentalists, religious organisations and people in the up-country will commence next year. Weerahandi said that there was no serious impact on the environment in the area. He added that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report had already been approved by the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) but with certain conditions. "We negotiated the conditions by the CEA and the JBIC loan is US $ 297 million", he said. According to Ministry sources, the JBIC has recently requested the government to inform the Bank about the government's readiness to go ahead with the project as scheduled. Earlier, the public protested against the UKHP because of a planned diversion water from Devon, Puna and Ramboda falls, but later the Ministry agreed to stop the diversion. Instead, water for the plant will be diverted mainly from the Kotmale oya, he added. Meanwhile, Shavindranath Fernando, Project Director said the JBIC loan was granted on March 28, 2002 and the Ministry was now in the process of calling tenders for phase 1 to develop roads, infrastructure and resettlement facilities. "The work under phase 1 - construction of roads and building of houses for resettlement will commence in May 2005", he said. According to Fernando, 497 houses will be built, under phase 1, in close proximity to the Talawakele town. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Protection of Natural Resources and Human Rights (ANRHR), an umbrella organisation of several other NGOs, protesting over the UKHP requests the government to consider severe environmental and social problems that involve the project and also to consider promoting green energy - dendro power- to meet the future electricity demands. The ANRHR told a media conference, last week, that they were ready to launch a strong protest campaign if the government decided to go ahead with the project, which they said was a 'big threat to the environment' destroying the natural stability of the upcountry. |
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