#AdanayaTemizHava #CleanAir4Adana

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The Hunutlu Coal fueled power plant to be constructed at Adana Sugözü beach threatens public health.

While health risks due to polluted air are once again on the agenda together with the Covid-19 crisis, air pollution causes approximately 52,000 premature deaths every year in Turkey.  

Adana, a metropolitan city in southern Turkey, breathes polluted air all year long. As per the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization’s air quality monitoring,  PM10 measurements in Adana are more than twice the air quality limit value of Turkey and four times more than that of the World Health Organization.

Adana has breathed this polluted air 236 days during 2019, meaning 65% of the whole year.

If air pollution could have been kept under the limit values, approximately 2,072 premature deaths in Adana could have been prevented.

The construction of the power plant, which is financed by three banks in China (China Development Bank, ICBC and Bank of China), will cause more deaths and diseases. We want clean air, not another coal power plant in Adana. Chinese banks must immediately stop financing this project! 

Chinese banks and companies are now the only foreign investors in coal development in Turkey, an investor of last resort, after French utility company Engie cancelled their involvement in a nearby project in 2015.

Finance of the construction of the power plant must be halted immediately because;

1. The project disregards Chinese government’s call for a “Green Belt and Road” and a “Health Belt and Road”
2. The project is not aligned with China’s Green Credit Guidelines and the Green Investment Principals, signed by all three financiers of the project at the 2nd Belt and Road Forum in April 2019. 
3. The EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Report of the project is not valid, since the air quality data measurements during the preparation of the report does not comply with the limit values.
4. The construction has started without carrying out any Health Impact Assessment; meaning effects on public health are unknown.
   The cumulative impact on environment and health of other power plants and industrial plants in Iskenderun bay, are not studied at all.
5. The power plant project is formulated against the Iskenderun Integrated Coastal Management Plan and the Environmental Plan of the area.
6. The construction of the power plant is against the law with respect to the 2009/10 Circular of the General Directorate of Nature Protection and National Parks, since the area is one of the priority green sea turtle nesting areas in the Mediterranean Basin.

Supporter Organizations:

Adana Çevre ve Tüketici Koruma Derneği

Adana Tabip Odası

Adana Ziraat Mühendisleri Odası

Antakya Çevre Koruma Derneği

CAN (Avrupa İklim Eylem Ağı) Europe

Doğa Derneği

Doğu Akdeniz Çevre Platformu

Ekosfer Derneği

Erzin Çevre ve Tarihi Varlıkları Koruma Derneği

Erzin Yeşilkent Sulama Kooperatifi

HEAL (Sağlık ve Çevre Birliği)

İskenderun Çevre Koruma Derneği

Mersin Çevre ve Doğa Derneği

Samandağ Çevre Koruma ve Turizm Derneği

Tarsus Çevre Koruma Kültür ve Sanat Merkezi

WWF-Türkiye (Doğal Hayatı Koruma Vakfı)

Yuva Derneği

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