Several environmental groups organised a protest rally in the Istrian town of Plomin on Thursday and called on the government and the country's national electricity provider HEP to back down from its planned construction of a thermal power plant in that town which is to be powered by coal and in that way "avoid far-reaching repercussions". To bring the point home the environmentalists put up 680 black silhouettes representing how many people would die prematurely if the plant was built.
"Instead of investing in this outdated project, it is necessary to prevent losses in electricity distribution and invest money to increase energy efficiency and utilise renewable energy resources", said the environmentalists.
Recently the environmentalists presented a scientific analysis which estimated that the cost of a coal-fired power plant would be paid with people's lives.
They recalled that the analysis presented some of the hidden costs of the intended power plant and that it could cause up to 2,671 cases of asthma and as many as 36,163 cases of respiratory illnesses.
The analysis further showed that at least 3,970 working days would be lost due to sick leave and a total external cost of EUR 124.8 million each year. There will be other costs incurred as a result of its effects on biological diversity, forests, and water systems.
"Claims by supporters of the coal-fired plant that the quality of air would improve, are simply not true", the environmentalists said, adding that the improvement would be because the Plomin 1 plant would be shut down but once the Plomin 3 plant was started up it would cause additional pollution.
The minister said in response then that if he had to choose between gas and coal he would always choose gas, however when the Plomin power facility was concerned the only rational solution was to use coal with the application of state-of-the-art technology.
Croatia's electricity provider (HEP) assessed the Greenpeace analysis as a crude and unfounded report that disturbed the public.
