Coal Plant Stirs Passions in Cambodia

NGO Forum

Chhith Sam Ath, the executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, says a proposed coal plant has not been properly vetted for environmental impacts.

By SIMON MARKS

(Posted by CAAI News Media)

Last week, executives from Leader Universal Holdings, a Malaysian company angling to build Cambodia’s largest coal-fired power plant, met with Cambodian government officials and environmentalists to discuss the company’s impact analysis for the proposed 100-megawatt facility.

There was little in the way of agreement.

The Cambodian government’s power development plan for the next decade includes the construction of nine hydroelectric dams and nine coal plants. Once operational, they will provide Cambodia with more than 3,000 megawatts of energy.

The government favors such large-scale projects, arguing it is the only affordable means for large-scale electricity generation.

Environmentalists, meanwhile, favor a decentralized energy system, where solar power, micro-hydropower stations and biomass gasifiers, for example, could help satisfy demand.

They also argued that a plant like the one planned by Leader Universal could wreak havoc on air quality and vastly increase the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Particle pollution such as soot is one of the most deadly forms of air pollution,” said Chhith Sam Ath, the executive director of NGO Forum, an association for local and international non-governmental organizations working in Cambodia. “The soot can also cause acidification of waters, depleted soil nutrients and the destruction of forests and crops.”

Mr. Sam Ath also said the company’s environmental impact statement overlooked other areas, including wastewater disposal and specific numbers on how much carbon dioxide the plant would emit.

“As CO2 emissions are one of the leading contributors to climate change, the plant should study the amount of CO2 that will be emitted and be required to use the latest ‘clean coal’ technologies,” he said.

Company officials, however, said the plant would comply with all the safety and environmental specifications set out by international bodies like the World Bank. They also said emissions and wastewater would have minimal impact on local communities, given the $3.6 million the company had set aside for mitigation efforts during the first year.

The company also suggested that large-scale power plants were the only way to accommodate Cambodia’s growing energy demand.

“To be practical, a decentralized energy system will not provide enough energy,” said one Leader Holdings executive, who did not want to be named because he was not authorized to speak by company officials. “Coal is the most economic way to generate power at this point.”

Jeroen Verschelling, the director of Kamworks, a solar energy company in Phnom Penh, disagreed, saying that Cambodia’s rising demand could easily be offset by greater efficiency.

“The first thing you need to do is see if you really need the energy,” Mr. Verschelling said. “A lot if energy is simply wasted.”