By Rathindra Kuruwita

Research has shown that Mannar is not an area with a high potential for wind-power and Sri Lankans must be wary as to why India’s Adani has chosen this area to develop a wind farm, environmental lawyer Jagath Gunawardana says.

Gunawardana said the wind-power project in Mannar can’t be justified on the basis of facts and figures, and therefore the government had started presenting false analogies to confuse people and achieve its objective.

For example, when talking about the proposed Adani wind-power project in Mannar, some writers and journalists without any conscience tell the public that Sri Lankans had to choose between an uninterrupted and cheap supply of electricity and nature, Gunawardana said.

“In 2022, we went without power for over 12 hours. Now, there is uninterrupted power supply, but people can’t pay the bills. The people might think environmentalists are overreacting,” he said.

The Sustainable Energy Authority had prepared a document on wind-power generation, where they had identified areas that had high potential for electricity generation, he said.

“They have identified locations in seven districts as areas with high potential for wind-power generation. Mannar is not one of them. The island of Mannar has areas that have medium and low potential. Shouldn’t a local or foreign company that wants to invest in wind-power choose one of those areas with high potential for wind-power generation? Why is Adani choosing Mannar instead of going to a high potential area?” he asked.

Gunawardana said the government and others pushing for wind-power in Mannar had not explained why Adani was building turbines in a low potential area for wind-power.

The Adani wind-power project had 52 turbines, and the Indian company had asked for 150 hectares to establish them, Gunawardana said. They also wanted 75 hectares for roads.

“Altogether over 225 hectares are earmarked for this project. They want 7.5 acres for one turbine. Do you need that much land to establish a turbine?” Gunawardena asked.

Gunawardana said Mannar was an area suspected to have valuable mineral resources. The environmental impact assessment said that the Sustainable Energy Authority would take over land from the people and hand it over to Adani, he said.

“This is illegal. A state institution can only take over land for a public purpose. Here, the Sustainable Energy Authority is acting like a broker. I don’t think this is legitimate,” Gunawardena said, noting that Adani was planning to sell Sri Lanka a unit of electricity at a price which was 200 to 250 percent higher than that of a unit of electricity produced with wind power in other parts of the world. The country would also have to make the payment in dollars, he said. The government had also agreed to buy wind power from Adani at a fixed price for 25 years, Gunawardena said, adding that due to advances in technology, the cost of renewables was decreasing.

“The government hides all these facts by creating false analogies to undermine and humiliate activists who try to raise public awareness. There are books on suppressing activists and hiding the truth. Many scholars have written PhD thesis on this particular subject. So, the government has a playbook already,” he said.

“The republic of Sri Lanka constitutes the land and the surrounding seas. Once we sell these to foreign companies, people and the government will have no control of the destiny of our country,” he said.