Globally Resist Poison PVC Plants
Alert sent 6/20/02 by CorpWatchIndia:

http://www.corpwatchindia.org/

You can send a FREE fax from the Corpwatch India Website!!!!

The International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank group, is considering a US$20 million funding proposal for a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant in an industrial estate in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. The process has been marked with irregularities, behind the scenes dealings and a lack of transparency. Communities living around the industrial park already suffer devastating health problems from the pollution caused by the industries. PVC is a known carcinogen and the plant will only worsen the health of the surrounding plants. Villagers from the area have organized to stop the PVC plant from being funded and operational.

TAKE ACTION!
Stop IFC Loan for PVC Factory
http://www.corpwatchindia.org/action/PAA.jsp?articleid=1784
The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will vote on the funding proposal for the PVC plant in Cuddalore. Support the local communities resisting the PVC plant in their community by sending a FREE fax to the IFC demanding that they cancel the funding proposal.

Also, you can write a letter or send an endorsement:
Please read the following letter addressed to the Director, International Finance Corporation (IFC) in India voicing opposition to the proposed PVC plant in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu. It will be great if you sign the letter and fax or post it to her directly or you can email us your endorsements and we will submitt it to IFC office in Delhi.
In case you want to send us your endorsements via email, please send the emails to tldelhi@vsnl.com and in the subject write "IFC Petition".

Also attached is the letter that the local community submitted to the Chairman Public Hearing committee on 7th June in Cuddalore.

In case you need more information on the proposal you can email:
M. NizamudeenGeneral Secretary, FEDCOT - Cuddalore fedcotgs@rediffmail.com
Nityanand Jayaraman, CorpWatch India- nity68@vsnl.com
Rajesh Rangarajan, Toxics Link Chennai- tlchennai@vsnl.net
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
PETITION
TO: James Wolfensohn, President, World Bank Group
(FAX: 202-522-3031)
Cc: Richard English, Ph.D.
Regional Coordinator for Environment & Social Development
International Finance Corporation
New Delhi, INDIA
Tel: (91-11) 611-1306
Fax: (91-11) 611-2278

Dear Sirs:
We are writing to protest against the Chemplast project (IFC project number 10492) to manufacture poly vinyl chloride (PVC) to be located in Cuddalore, Tamil Nadu, India. The plant is set to come up in a region where local communities are already suffering the effects of intense industrial pollution.
Further, the project documents on the IFC website naively note that the project site has abundant groundwater despite the fact that the key demand of the local communities has been against the setting up of water-intensive industries given their experience with falling water tables as a result of industrial extraction of groundwater.
The local communities have time and again called for an end to Greenfield projects or expansion of polluting industries in this region. Less than two years ago, the State Human Rights Commission confirmed that industrial pollution has seriously contaminated the groundwater, and that the serious air and land pollution in the area is the cause of the rampant health disorders among the local farming and dalit communities. The Commission also recommended that no more chemical industries be set up in the region given its over-extended carrying capacity.
PVC plastic is one of the most toxic plastics, the manufacture of which involves the use and release of extremely carcinogenic vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). The production of PVC releases toxics including dioxins, hexachlorobenzene, and polychlorinated biphenyls. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) calls for the elimination of these toxics, and IFC funding of this project would directly contradict the World Bank Group's stated commitment to reduce and eliminate the release of POPs.
The environmental impact assessment for the Chemplast plant contains numerous flaws, and shows that emissions of VCM from the plant would far exceed internationally permissible levels. Additionally, we are concerned that this project will introduce 170,000 tons of new PVC into the environment each year. We are also concerned that dioxin would be formed in the proposed VCM incinerator on site.
The project fails even on the economic front. Chemplast currently proposes to create only 100 jobs with a total investment of $100 million, including $20 million from the IFC. This means that that each job this project creates will come at a cost of $1 million.
Please vote against this dangerous PVC project. If you have not had a chance to review the severe impacts of this project, please take action to delay a vote on this project as a precautionary measure.
Sincerely,
Name:
Organisation:

More info:
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Amit Srivastava
International Programs Coordinator
CorpWatch
P.O. Box 29344, San Francisco, CA 94129, USA
Tel: 1 415 561 6472 Fax: 1 415 561 6493
Email: amit@corpwatch.org
Web: http://www.corpwatch.org
http://www.CorpWatchIndia.org
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