WASHINGTON (CN) - A World Bank-funded power plant in India destroyed the lands and livelihoods of hundreds of farmers and fishermen and endangered their families' health, residents claim in Federal Court.
Lead plaintiff Budha Ismail Jam and three other affected residents sued the International Finance Corp. on behalf of the "impoverished fishing communities and local farmers who have had their way of life fundamentally threatened or destroyed by the Tata Mundra Plant," in Kutch District, Gujarat, India.
A local trade union representing fisher-workers' rights and Navinal Panchayat, a village near the plant, are also named as plaintiffs. Navinal village has about 800 homes and 3,000 residents whose livelihoods depend on farming, fishing and animal rearing, according to the complaint.
Before the Tata Mundra Ultra Mega Power Plant, a 4,150-megawatt, coal-fired plant, began operating at full capacity in 2013, International Finance Corp. provided a $450 million loan to the project.
A subsidiary of Indian company Tata Power owns the plant in question, while IFC is the private-lending arm of the World Bank Group.
"The IFC states that its mission is to 'carry out investment and advisory activities with the intent to "do no harm" to people and the environment,'" the lawsuit states. "The Tata Mundra Plant is thus a mission failure. The project has already done substantial harm to local people and the environment, and if compensatory, remedial and preventive measures are not promptly taken, plaintiffs will be further injured, their livelihoods destroyed, and the local environment irreparably harmed, all in further violation of the IFC's mission."
IFC's financing came despite its alleged knowledge that the coal-fired power plant would cause significant harm to the environment and surrounding communities.
"The IFC acted negligently and irresponsibly at all phases of this project - in its appraisal, in the disbursement of funds, and in its supervision and monitoring of the project and the impacts on local communities and the environment," Michelle Harrison, one of the attorneys behind the April 23 complaint, said in an interview. "The IFC approved the critical funding that enabled the project to go forward without taking reasonable steps to prevent the harms it specifically foresaw and it subsequently failed to enforce provisions of the loan agreement intended to protect the affected communities and the environment. And, despite the fact that its own accountability mechanism has sharply criticized the IFC's acts and omissions with respect to this project, the IFC has still failed to remedy the situation."
Tata Mundra got its initial environmental clearance from the Indian government in 2007, along with another power plant that was built just a mile away, around the same time. Both plants have allegedly raised eyebrows because of their environmental impact.
Tata Mundra, which burns about 12 to 13 million tons of coal a year, takes in enormous amounts of seawater and discharges heated water into the sea through a large outfall channel.
"The Tata Mundra Plant is located in an ecologically rich, but fragile, portion of the Kutch coast in Gujarat, India," home to communities of farmers and fishermen, the complaint states.
IFC's funding was critical to getting the project off the ground, and it "failed to take sufficient steps or exercise due care to prevent and mitigate harms to the property, health, livelihoods, and way of life of many of the people who live near the Tata Mundra Plant," the complaint continues.
