East Timor plant draws community concerns

East Timor plant draws community concerns
22 April 2014


A new greenfield cement plant project planned by BGC (Australia) Pty Ltd in Baucau, north Timor, has led local community groups to set up a non-governmental organisation “to protect and preserve the communities’ rights to their culture, development and traditional land rights.

The Timor-Leste Cement plant will be built by POSCO E&C Australia who will be responsible for the whole process from engineering to procurement and construction.

Community organisation, Kapeliwa was publicly launched on 19 April 2014, by a group of intellectuals from Kaisido, Parlamento, Lialailesu and Osowa - four villages located in the northeast coast of Timor-Leste, Baucau district. The four villages, situated near the airport of the country's second city, are part of the administrative area of Suco Tirilolo, where the minority ethno-lingusitic community Uaima'a live.

In the first public meeting with the community members and leaders of the four villages, the group's founders presented the ”potential positive and negative impact of the proposed cement factory in and on Uaima'a land known as Kaisido.” According to local press reports, the group claims that there is lack of information about this project and that there hasn't been a proper viability study for the development.

Published under Cement News