The World Bank’s investing arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), finances a polluting steel mill in Jharkhand, India.
India has been declared the largest country of operation of the IFC (the private investing arm of the World Bank), with a total USD 3.6 billion in financing, spanning 248 projects. Both IFC and World Bank apparently take pride in these projects being "environmentally sustainable".
Yet, the reality for Indian projects was found to be quite different, as uncovered by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a Delhi based non-profit. One example is the steel plant in the community of Jamshedpur, which nightly covers the 5 surrounding villages in a film of red dust (about 80 households). The dust, a by-product of the mill, causes respiratory problems that the villagers have to travel into the city to get treated. The steel mill also dumps solid waste, affecting as many as 100 more households as the heavy metals leech into groundwater.
Complaints about the pollution have been made, but the plant lacks the facilities to address them. India's online magazine Down to Earth reports in "Pollution Glorified", "The emissions from the mill can be attributed largely to the electric arc furnace process, as a proper secondary emission control system has not yet been installed. R N Choudhury, regional officer of Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board (JSPCB), Jamshedpur, says, “Repeated complaints have been received from residents on air, water and solid waste pollution, which were subsequently communicated to the mill through notices.” A show-cause notice was issued in January 2010 for non-compliance of the board’s consent conditions and for not submitting monitoring reports on pollution parameters conducted at JSPCB’s authorized, independent laboratories, he adds... Down To Earth found JSPCB’s regional office in Jamshedpur is functioning with skeletal staff and has dysfunctional laboratory. The mill is yet to take proper action in response to the notice." Vijay Sharma, CEO and head of Usha Martin Jamshedpur mill, has said that the mill is 25 years old and that improvements will not be able to be made until June 2012.
Further, IFC's green claims were found hollow in 10 other investment projects in India. You can find the details below in a special report.
IFC’s green claims ring hollow, by Sunanda Mehta and Umashankar S., Down to Earth, Feb 15, 2012 (PDF, 233 KB)
For details visit:
http://www.bicusa.org/en/Article.12596.aspx
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