On April 27th, our partners in Sendou/Bargny reiterated their opposition to the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank (FMO), one of the financiers of the controversial coal power plant project in Senegal. The other financing partners are the African Development Bank (AFDB), the West-African Development Bank (BOAD), and the Banking Company of West Africa (CBAO).
Starting in 2014, the project has stood still for almost two years due to an irreconcilable shareholder conflict. Under a new ownership structure, the commercial operation date was reached in October 2018, unfortunately, the plant experienced technical difficulties and operated intermittently only for a few weeks in the first half of 2019.
In December 2019, the government through the Minister of Environment announced to change the coal power plant into a gas power plant but the coal impacted communities are afraid of suffering the same consequences and they are calling for a just transition to renewable energy. You can help them by tweeting their demands to call President Macky Sall to stop the Sendou/Bargny coal plant project and put Senegal on the track of 100% renewables instead.
By Daouda Gueye, Réseau des Associations pour la Protection de l’Environnement (RAPEN)