Higher focus on coal energy amid health warning

Environmentalist Dewi Thant Sin from Myanmar Green Network said: “The government only allows 4 per cent of current electricity consumed to come from coal energy. Now it is allowing suppliers to produce up to 29.6 per cent of the total. That’s why the electricity companies are trying to convince locals to accept their clean coal technology claiming it is the latest technique from Japan. They invited young people to visit Japan for a study tour of coal-fired power plants in Yokohama. Will that show the real facts? We need to know more.” 

Hydroelectric power is meeting 74 per cent of total demand while gas turbines provide 23 per cent. The rest comes from coal-fired power plants, according to Second Myanmar Electricity Power Convention.

A total of 3,970 megawatts was consumed in 2014 with another 2,500 megawatts needed this year, according to Ministry of Electric Power.

At present, the government is looking at 10 coal-fired power projects although none has been finalised yet. 

Two of them are in Myeik and Yay, Tanintharyi Region, three in Kungyangon, Htantabin and Kyauktan in Yangon Region and two are in Ngayokekaung and Bokepyin, Ayeyarwady Region. Others will be in Kengtung, Shan State, and Kalaywa, Sagaing.

At a forum on power supply, mining expert Saw Moe Myint also stressed the importance of health impact assessment before the government would give permission to any new coal-fired power plants. 

 “The health of people living near the Tijit and Kawthaung coal-fuelled power plants should be examined so we can evaluate the possible impact of future projects,” he said.

The government is planning to produce up to 13,100 megawatts of electricity from coal. It is predicted that carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants may jump to 96.6 million tonnes – 11 times the current 8.9 million tonnes.

“What we usually forgot to mention is that coal-powered electricity projects need lots of water. It takes 2.2 billion gallons for every coal power plant with a capacity of 500 megawatts. The question is how to supply such huge amounts of water,” Saw Moe Myint argued.

New coal technology, which was apparently far cleaner, consumed a great quantity of limestone and released a large amount of dust, he added.

Standards and procedures for coal use should be declared, Saw Moe Myint said.

“I’ve been in Pinlaung, Shan State, where houses are covered with ash filled with sulphur dioxide from the Tijit coal-powered plant. I’m sure this ash will turn to acid when the rain falls,” he said.

Coal-powered plants could harm nervous, respiratory and cardiac systems and cause many diseases, according to a US survey.

It was found that women living near coal-fuelled power plants were likely to suffer more from miscarriages, delivering underweight babies with lower intelligence and higher rates of mortality.

Ko Moe, an environmentalist, said: “People die early of ailments for which they have no knowledge. We’ve discovered that they are drinking water contaminated with ash.”