Two hydro-power plants to be built in Sulawesi's forest park
Friday, June 8 2007 - 02:28 AM WIB
PT Lindu Hydropower and PT Gumbasa Energy plan to build two hydro-power plants, each with capacity of 30 megawatts, in the Lore Lindu national forest park in Donggala regency,
Heru Husaini, the director of both companies, said in Palu Thursday that the construction of two power plants would be able to help meet the sharp increase in the power demand in the province which was projected to reach about 145 megawatt by 2013.
He said that additional power supply would be needed to meet the future demand because the existing power plants had the capacity only to provide power supply of about 85 megawatts.
The planned construction of the two power plants is, however, opposed by local activists on fears that the projects would cause a serious damage to the Lore Lindu forest conservation area.
But, Heru said that the construction of the two hydropower plants would not cause a serious damage to the forest area in the national park because the companies would use underground canals in channeling the water from Lindu and Gumbala rivers in the park to move the power generators.(*)