How ungrateful can we be?

How ungrateful can we be? First, majority of our rivers are polluted. Then our forests are being hacked. And now, this:

Nod for project shocks group

LAHAD DATU: An announcement that the Government has approved a controversial RM1.3bil coal-fired power plant in Silam near here has jolted a group of environmentalists opposing it.

“How could approval be given for the 300 megawatt independent power plant without anyone seeing the EIA report,” asked the Lahad Datu district Sabah Environment Action committee chairman Wong Tack.

He said a check with both the federal Environment Department in Putrajaya and the state counterparts in Kota Kinabalu showed that no detailed EIA report on the project of Tenaga Nasional Berhad subsidiary, Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd, had been obtained.

“ We are not sure which government – state or federal – or authority gave the go-ahead for the coal power plant,” he said at Friday’s meeting of concerned social activists and local businessmen at a hilltop rest house overlooking the proposed project site at Pacific Hardwood near Kampung Silam.

The group called for the meeting after TNB announced recently that it had received government approval for the coal power plant.

Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman had said last year that the project would only go on if all the necessary approvals, including the detailed EIA, were obtained.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia on July 25, TNB said the project would be carried out by a consortium in which its wholly-owned unit, TNB Repair and Maintenance Sdn Bhd, has a 51% stake. The other consortium members were Eden-Nova with 35% stake and Maser with 14% stake.

Wong said the people of Lahad Datu and Silam had yet to see a copy of the EIA and this showed that some people were trying to bulldoze the implementation of the coal power plant project through regardless of the dangers it would pose to their health and the environment.

“We are also compiling a full report on how the Silam region can be made into a viable eco-tourism centre and will submit it to the Prime Minister,” he said.

The coal power plant project hit the spotlight after environmentalists in Lahad Datu voiced their concerns to The Star in November last year about the long-term effects on people and nature from the proposed power plant at the entrance of Danum Valley conservation area.

The group cited studies that showed significant amounts of birth defects caused by mercury poisoning; sulphur dioxide causing acid rain; soot particles causing visibility and respiratory problems; and carbon dioxide contributing to global warming.

It will not only rain criticism on Malaysia if they go ahead with the plan. Probably we will experience sulfur and brimstone rain as well, literally.