Today I visited local communities in #Bargny, #Senegal, organising against a coal-fired power plant. The plant has caused respiratory illnesses in the town and has also had a major impact on fishing, which is the livelihood of a large part of the people here.
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🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/ErnstCornelia/status/1629906741608562688
The air pollution is also intensified by an adjacent #cement plant, which encloses the village from the other side. Off the coast of Bargny, a port terminal has now been built, leading to further land grabbing and worsening conditions for #fishery.
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/ErnstCornelia/status/1629906752010428419
And as if all this were not enough, Bargny is also affected by rising sea levels and coastal erosion. Every year, metres of land are lost to the sea, as demolished houses by the sea show. Bargny, between rising seas and a coal-fired power plant, is a sad symbol of #climatechange.
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/ErnstCornelia/status/1629906762638696448
The Senegalese state plans to convert the coal plant into a gas plant in the future. But the people in Bargny are sceptical and do not see gas as a supposedly clean bridging technology. Future energy partnerships with 🇸🇳 should thus exclusively enhance renewables! #JETP
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/ErnstCornelia/status/1629906767999008770
But for some years now, the people in Bargny have been organising themselves, also with the help of @RLS_dakar. They we’re partly successful: The African Development Bank (AFDB) withdrew its funding for the project after a complaint from the community. A struggle that gives hope!
RT @RLS_dakar: A fisher community living in #Bargny at 15km from the city of #Dakar is facing the impacts on the community’s livelihoods of an industrialization program of the Senegalese …
🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/ErnstCornelia/status/1629906765595783171