Jakarta Post-Residents of Cilegon, Banten province, have accused the World Bank Group of indirectly financing a project to expand a massive coal-fired power plant (PLTU) in Suralaya village, arguing the expanded plant would negatively affect their health and livelihood, environmental groups said on Thursday.
In a complaint lodged with the World Bank, the residents have alleged that its member International Finance Corporation (IFC) had made an equity investment in a bank that is financing the Suralaya PLTU expansion project, but they do not allege that the investment was used to fund the project.
The Suralaya power plant complex in Cilegon, around 100 kilometers west of Jakarta, is presently the largest such facility in Southeast Asia. The complex currently has eight power generation units (PGUs) with a total output capacity of 4,025 megawatts (MW), and the plan to add two PGUs, Java 9 and 10, will increase output by 2,000 MW.
The expansion project “will devastate local communities and tip the world closer to a climate catastrophe, to which Indonesia and its citizens are uniquely susceptible,”. Novita Indri, energy activist at the Trend Asia, said in a statement.
Photo by Melvinas Priananda/Trend Asia