Villagers raise protest heat

Speaking to reporters after villagers staged a fiery and noisy placard demonstration in Pt Lisas, near an entrance road to the intended site, Kublalsingh said the activist group would also be having a “teleconference” meeting with the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) which is funding the project) to discuss their concerns.

“We have a meeting next two weeks with the IADB. They are going to do some teleconferencing with us, they want to hear our concerns.

“So basically right now we have their loan for this project locked up,” Kublalsingh said.

“The reason why they can’t do anything at the moment is because they don’t have any money for it, so basically they did this (clear the site), was to save this institute because if they had waited any longer after March 17, they would have lost the certificate (of environmental clearance), and they would have had to reapply, so they just did a dig up here just for show, but they can’t do anything now.”

He said the villagers were requesting the plant be situated at the Point Lisas Industrial Estate and not in close proximity to the communities of Savonetta and Phoenix Park or Claxton Bay.

“The press conference was held this morning to ask the Prime Minister a question — If you said you wanted to review, why have you started work here?” he asked.

Kublalsingh recalled that at a meeting held almost three weeks prior, the Prime Minister had “listened to our concerns, and she expressed some concern of her own and she said she would review CariSal.

“We put forward our position. CariSal will mean the production of five chemicals here — it’s a chlorine-based plant so they are going to produce chlorine, which is extraordinarily dangerous, they are going to produce hydrochloric acid, bleach, caustic soda, calcium chloride and they are going to be trucking and piping and purifying all of these dangerous chemicals, for fifty years on this spot,” he said.

The villagers, some of whom bore placards which read “CariSal too Close and Save our Children”, burnt several tyres in an asphalt and dirt road leading to the proposed plant site.

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"Villagers raise protest heat"

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