Pacitan villagers say coal plant reduced livelihoods, brought little new employment
The waves of the Indian Ocean crash against the breakwater at Bawur Bay, a protective arm shielding the Pacitan coal-fired power plant. A few meters away, a barge full of coal is berthed. Its cargo is unloaded onto a conveyor belt and transported about 500 meters into a coal yard shelter reminiscent of an airplane hangar. Two 315 megawatt generators and a tall smokestack stand nearby. Misnadi’s house lies about two kilometers to the east, its front yard full of buoys and nets marking him as a fisherman. Misnadi, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, is a resident of Sumberejo village in East Java’s Pacitan district. Misnadi used to fish just offshore in the Kondang Bay. Now, he told Mongabay-Indonesia, he has stopped looking for fish and shrimp there. Since construction began on the coal plant in 2007, he and other fishermen have avoided the area.
