Bali Travel Forum B-P

[bali_in_danger]

Where is Bali going to - development or destruction ?
Dear friends of Bali,
This is an S.O.S call from the North of Bali that concerns all of us. You might have heard already of our fight against the building of a power plant in the area of Lovina.

Lovina Beach is actually the longest beach of Bali, being famous for snorkelling, fishing, diving, dolphin watching at sunrise and in general for its underwater world. The reef stretches from Singaraja to the Maritime National Park of Menjangan Island, which is only 60 km away, and it offers living space for dolphins and many other species of tropical fish.

In 1999 the region of Lovina was declared a designated tourist area by law PERDA No 4. by the Balinese government, and clear rules and restrictions referring to building projects have been set for the area.

We, the people living here, are very much concerned about the fact, that the operation of this power plant will put us at very high risk of loosing not only our jobs, but will also destroy the beauty of the beach and the coral reef of Lovina. Consequently the local fishermen would loose their livelyhood.
.
As the building site is in the middle of a densely populated housing area in the village of Pemaron, only two kilometres from the large town of Singaraja, it can be assumed, that the operation of the power plant will have a serious impact on the health of the inhabitants in terms of predictable water- air- and noise pollution. The harmful long-term effects on local agriculture can be foreseen as well.

But this region not only lives on agriculture and fishing, but also provides jobs for thousands of people in the mainly family run tourist industry of Lovina. It can easily be foreseen that these businesses will be seriously affected by this project, too.

It is important for you to know, that this power plant will be using an antiquated generator, which has already been in use for more than 30 years on the island of Java.
That‘s why it will need 1080 tons of oil per day to produce 100 MW of electricity in combination with a gas turbine. All this is called a “gas – combined – cycle – power plant”. As an extension it is planned to produce steam, using the remaining heat to produce another 50 MW.

As oil tankers would anchor off shore Lovina and deliver up to nearly one million litres! of oil per week the danger of polluting the sea and the beaches cannot be denied.

Because there is no natural or manmade harbour in the village of Pemaron the oil will then be pumped from the tanker into a free-floating pipeline, representing a constant danger of leaking of oil during the process of discharging. Only a little oil spillage from the pipeline everyday would do irreparable damage, without considering the catastrophe of a tanker accident on our coastline, or incidents like damage of the pipeline due to seismic influences, strong tides, storms or cyclones during the rainy season, traffic on land or water, fire and explosions, sabotage and acts of terrorism as well as collisions in the coastal area.

The oil spillage could even reach the West Coast or the South of Bali….

One thing that is already known by now is that the seawater in our region will be heated up as it is planned to use seawater for the cooling of the machines. To cool the generator, 240 cubic of seawater per hour will be needed, which then will be pumped back into the delicate ecosystem of the sea at a much higher temperature.

How poor is Bali / Indonesia that it needs to reconstruct a 30 year old power plant producing its energy by burning oil?

We are a small group of people, who are not only worried about our own existence, but also about the environment and the future of thousands of people working in the tourist, fisheries and agriculture industries.

As there is big money involved in this “3. World” project, there are a lot of personal interests from the local government as well as from PLN and P.T. Indonesia Power...
Our fight against this giant of a government that can afford to pay billions of Rupiahs just to push through their project against all odds seems to be like David against Goliath.

After trying to stop the project by means of - proposing alternatives such as other affordable and more modern technologies, suggesting more appropriate locations, non-violent demonstrations, chain letters to our friends, signing petitions, information brochures and many other efforts, the local NGO fought this case in the courts to put a legal stop to this crazy project.
We lost, and in addition to that, when leaving the court, one of our main activists was threatened with murder and burning of his house and business, some were beaten up by a violent group of locally well-known thugs and semi criminals that had also formerly been showing up at the demonstrations, obviously being paid by the ones who want to carry out the project for their own interests.

As we experience in other environmental projects there are many Balinese people from all over the island who are concerned about the environment and strongly reject this kind of power plant in this location. But as a result of the last 2 years of struggle and with the historical background of a country, where intellectuals having been and still are pursued, threatened, confined and even killed for expressing their opinion, and a government that is deeply into corruption, many of them are scared and do not know anymore what can be done against it…

The local population of Lovina is mainly consisting of fishermen and farmers, who, without having had the possibility of receiving a good education, are bribed in order to get their agreements and badly misinformed about the project.

Therefore we need all the support we can get from people with influence from all over Bali and all around the world, in particular people, who really care about the future of Bali which is considered to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world.

We should join together and do everything we can to protect the beauty of Bali as a whole against the ignorance and the personal financial interests of only a handful of people, who have no vision at all about what is good and what is dangerous for this small tourist island.

We believe you understand our fears therefore we seek your help in our struggle to protect and upgrade the quality of our beaches and seawater. This island gives us so much, its worth all the effort we can make to protect it!


Please contact us at
bali_in_danger@yahoo.com

[Power]

Mr. bali-in-danger:
My name is Power and I am from China mainland.Very plesed to read your letter and feel that you do love your hometown deeply.
I am a university student majoring Thermal Power Engineering in Wuhan University which is one of the best universities in China.As much as I know,it is not that all thermal power plant will destroy viorment rapidly and widely.In your article you mentioned that a gas – combined – cycle – power plant was building in your hometown,and I think you worried too much.
Gas – combined – cycle technology has developed many years and it is agreed a clean 、efficient generating method.This kind of power plant is different from coal or oil-used plant and is one type of recomended way for getting electicity .So,do not worry,my friend,you will still have your beautful village and also have enough power!
best wishes for you and all Balis.
sinceersly Power from China,East Aisia

[ronb]

Well it is now 4.5 years since the original post and 3 years since the reassurance from Power.

The plant is in operation and is not noisy, seems to peacefully coexist with neighbours etc. I guess the risk of oil leaks will always be there, but so far all seems well.

[Vienix]

And you can post...

[nhonho_88]

Storms are happened in this season so be carefully