Northern Power says it has no hand in Jaffna water contamination

Saturday, 24 January 2015 03:23 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

No evidence yet found by Govt.-appointed independent committee: MTD Walkers Plc CEO By Waruni Paranagamage There is no scientific evidence to prove accusations which link the Northern Power Co. Ltd. to the controversial water contamination issue in Jaffna even though baseless allegations have been made by parties with vested interests, Northern Power’s parent company, MTD Walkers Plc, announced yesterday in Colombo. Speaking at a media conference, MTD Walkers Plc Director/CEO Lal Perera stated that baseless allegations had been raised with the ulterior motive of misleading the people of Jaffna about the company, falsely claiming that its power plant, located in Chunnakkam, has led to the pollution of several wells located 2-3 km away from the plant.

“We are a very professional company and we have been approved by the BOI. We also work under the rules of the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) and Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for the operation of the plant,” Perera said. The company hailed the Government for appointing a committee comprising academics of two renowned institutions – the University of Peradeniya and the University of Jaffna – which has already inspected the premises of the power plant and has so far found no credibility in the allegations raised. Perera asserted that these baseless charges were raised by parties with vested interests and not a single allegation had been so far accepted by the courts or by any Government authority. The power plant is operated with all necessary environmental licenses and approval in place - which are issued on an annual basis with quarterly checks carried out based out on the conditions required by the licensing authorities. “Unfortunately, the allegation is that the waste oil from the plant is being discharged to the ground and that this was causing the pollution of wells that are located so many kilometres away,” Perera stressed. He said waste oil was collected in overhead tanks, sold and taken away by third parties and absolutely nothing was discharged to the ground. The waste oil fetches a good price as it is used for firing furnaces and the company makes revenue from its sale, so it would not deprive itself of this income by discharging it to the ground. “If we can earn extra profit by selling waste oil, why would a commercial venture such as ours throw away valuable oil?” Perera questioned. Furthermore, he mentioned that the labourers in the plant were still using water which was taken from the well inside the plant for drinking, cooking and other needs without facing any trouble. He expressed that unfortunately the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) and the Public Health Inspector (PHI), who are not specialists in this field of engineering, were making the baseless allegations. “They are basically making these claims based purely on hearsay and without any scientific methodology being employed to identify the root cause of the contamination and those responsible,” Perera added. He also asserted that the MOH or PHI have no legal right to investigate issues concerning the BOI-approved company. The company highlighted that a large oil lake (oil kulam) existed within the previous State-run power plant premises before Northern Power commenced operations and the “lake” contained a large quantity of oil as indicated even on Google maps taken over a period of time, which were presented to court as well. Northern Power commenced construction of the power plant in 2007 during the height of the conflict, when no company or individual was willing to even venture to the North, let alone build a power plant, facing considerable risk to provide much-needed power to the people of Jaffna, the company said. They added that they had faced many hardships especially without a proper road transport option available, which has forced them to transport all materials and personnel by air or sea at a very high cost.