President Joko Widodo officially announced the construction of two Independent Power Producer (IPP) Coal Power Plant projects in Banten on October 5th 2017, with a capacity of 4.000 Megawatts, which are CPP Java 7 and CPP 9 and 10. Both projects are included in the 35.000 Megawatt program. Both of the projects use Ultra Super Critical Technology (USC) which is claimed to be environmentally friendly and provide the more efficient energy conversion, higher than the conventional CPP technology.
Banten Province is selected as a location for CPP construction; this will certainly worsen the public health and air quality that is affected by the coal dust from the combustion process. The event that occurred on Monday, November 25th 2019 is the evidence of the threat of toxic dust from the massive industrial development, especially the Cilegon’s CPP. On that day, the residents of Suralaya Subdistrict, Pulo Merak Subdistrict, and Cilegon City complained the impact of toxic dust from the plant’s activities that increases the reports of patients with respiratory and lung diseases.
