Many organizations call for the closure of a large thermal power plant in Dominica, arguing that it endangers the health of minors | Future Planet

Dominican Republic’s most important Punta Catalina thermal power plant in operation for three years has created health problems for children from coal ash and toxic gases, “could lead to 6,000 premature deaths in the next 30 years”, International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and several local entities condemned in Geneva on Wednesday. The NGO stressed that environmental damage was also felt in Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica, calling for the early closure of the facility, which is expected to operate for 30 years.

“Our goal is for the Dominican government to close the plant by 2028,” Jimena Reyes, FIDH Americas director, told the newspaper. According to the study’s authors, an immediate shutdown is ruled out because a third of the country’s electricity supply depends on the plant, and the government would need five years to “decarbonize its energy sector”, depending on More than 80% are fossil fuels.

The report to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is based on a 2022 study by Dominican organizations on the advice of Duke University in the United States, which warned that toxic emissions were three times the levels allowed in Europe, which The amount of fly ash produced by the plant is about 200,000 tons per year. The ash will also reach water sources and fertile land, partly due to the storms that regularly rock the region, and will affect “the entirety of Haiti and the east coasts of Cuba and Jamaica” like polluting gases.

This means that “minors are at risk in terms of access to drinking water, adequate nutrition, and a safe environment that guarantees their survival, growth and development,” especially in the first year of life when they are sensitive to respiratory diseases, the International Federation for Human Rights and the Dominican entity It condemned the National Commission on Climate Change (CNLCC), the Alliance for the Defense of Health and the Environment in the province of Peravia, where the factory is located, and the Association of Environmental Lawyers.

“The request to close the Punta Catalina Thermal Power Plant is extremely absurd, as it would mean depriving the country of 30% of its electricity supply and partially shutting down the Dominican Republic,” the company said.

Specifically, experts from these organizations concluded that, “taking into account the measurement of the actual emissions released by the factories”, if nothing changes, “the pollution produced could lead to premature death of up to five people per year in the province of Peravia. 57 premature deaths in the province.” As many as 127 in the Dominican Republic and Haiti,” multiplied by the plant’s 30-year lifespan, “represents at least 6,000 premature deaths, especially boys and girls” .

To this end, a report presented in Geneva by 188 human rights organizations from 116 countries accused the Dominican state of “violating the rights of children in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Jamaica and failing to take measures to prevent and remedy the damage caused by the commissioning of factories”.

“This is a worrying situation as lung, skin and cardiovascular diseases have increased over the past three years, with high economic costs for families with little purchasing power. bronchitis, pneumonia, etc., all of which are a product of Cape Catalina,” condemned Virtudes Martínez, teacher and CNLCC member. Geneva to this newspaper.

“Catalina Cape Poison”

The text submitted to the Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed the deaths of three girls under one year of age from pneumonia in 2022, who lived in the Nizao municipality area, where the concentrations of airborne toxic particulates and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) were the highest. Although the Ministry of Public Health concluded that their deaths were not related to air pollution, it did admit that “indicators of air pollution in the dead bodies were not considered” and recommended permanent monitoring of the plant’s emissions, air pollution and its impact on health .

For Martinez, the culprit remains “the negligence of the Dominican government.” “No autopsy was done to find out the cause of these deaths, but we do know it was a product of pollution. We are tired of our people getting sick from the poison in Cape Catalina,” the activist asserted.

The government, then chaired by Danilo Medina, proposed opening Catalina Point as a “solution” to the Dominican Republic’s power outages. But long before it was built, segments of Dominican civil society had called for its closure. The report recalls that the plant, which consists of two plants that generate electricity by burning polluting coal, was also the target of corruption allegations in its tender process.

In a statement issued in June 2022, the plant’s directors responded to the criticism, recalling that “there is no power generation activity in the world that does not leave an environmental footprint”, but reiterating that the disposal of the ash comes from mineral coal Combustion received a “positive review” from a professional advisor.

“The demand to close the Punta Catalina Thermal Power Plant is utterly absurd, only fanatical minds may be affected by the hit of tropical surrealism, because it means taking away 30% of the country’s electricity supply, in short, part of the The power supply will be cut off. “Leave the Dominican Republic,” the company did promise.

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