Here is what is being written on Kammie Holder’s Facebook Page about a speech delivered recently by new Minister of the Environment:

Ministers of governments must do research before just reading any speech prepared for them.  The money we will put in a Waste to Energy plant  can be better utilized in Renewable Energy. Where will the toxic dioxin be dumped and if the scrubbers breakdown? Tell the investor wheel and come again. Bhopal is still fresh in our minds and we will not survive a Dioxin spill or can we afford an accident. Why do we listen to investors who come and talk pretty with the only motive being profit. Enact legislation to encourage persons to sort their garbage and provide incentives for companies to recycle, reuse and reduce. When will our leaders learn?

I have tagged ministers of government past and present, doctors and an undertaker as he can expect more persons to die from cancer if we so foolishly accept a waste to energy plant in Barbados. Let St Lucia brag about been the first at least there a down wind of Barbados

Here is a press release released by Greenpeace in 2004 which appears still to be relevant.

Press release – January 8, 2004

Environmental group Greenpeace today warned the public in Chiang Mai about the dangers of waste-to-energy incinerators currently being proposed by the Ministry of Energy.

Environmental group Greenpeace today warned the public in Chiang Mai about the dangers of waste-to-energy incinerators currently being proposed by the Ministry of Energy.

The government is planning to open garbage-burning power plants in the provinces of Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Nakhon Ratchasima and Rayong. The plan will be submitted to the Cabinet for approval on January 13.

Chiang Mai, the stronghold of social and environmental movements, opposed and successfully stopped the construction of an incinerator in Hang Dong district in 1995.

“These waste-to-energy and integrated waste management systems are fancy names for incinerators. If a right decision is going to be made, the government must learn from the experience in Hang Dong and implement zero waste initiatives instead of trying to justify inefficient technologies and waste our resources,” said Tara Buakamsri, Toxics Campaigner of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

He pointed out that contrary to claims by the Energy Ministry that the incinerator in Phuket is successful, there is no success story of garbage power plants in Thailand.

A study of the incinerator in Phuket by the United Nations Environment Program and Germany Technical Assistance (GTZ) in 2001 has shown an increase in environmental and health threats. The study indicated that the Phuket incinerator releases a large amount of the toxic chemical Dioxin, which can cause cancer. (1)

“These projects will not help us clear a path for sustainable waste management policy. It is prohibitively expensive to build. Even with supposedly state of the art facilities, an incinerator’s toxic emission can not be controlled completely. Those living in the Chiang Mai-Lamphun basin must be concerned about living under toxic cloud if this plan materializes,” said Chainarong Setthachua, Director of Southeast Asia River Network (SEARIN).

Greenpeace has been campaigning against waste incinerator in Thailand since 1999 and successfully help preventing Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s (JBIC) loan package from financing the waste incineration project in On Nut, Bangkok last year. (2)

Greenpeace urges the government that instead of creating dirty energy from waste, it should implement environmentally acceptable waste management strategies and support zero waste initiatives to make local communities healthy

Notes: 1. The study conducted by United Nations Environment Program and Germany Technical Assistance (GTZ) in 2001 has found out that Phuket Incinerator releases 550 mg I-TEQ of Dioxin annually. Scientific evidence point out that Dioxin causes cancer. 2. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has played an active role in financing dirty technology and controversial large-scale development projects in Asia since its establishment in 1999. Recently the institution has implemented the “JBIC Environmental Guidelines” in response pubic opposition to many projects it has funded.