Source : Panchar Penemu, Sept-Oct Issue,
Issue 25 (a bimonthly newsletter
from Sarawak)
Playing Fire With the Mighty Rejang?
When plans for the construction for a 2400MW dam along the Rejang River, the
multi-billion ringgit Bakun hydro-electric project was scrapped in 1986,
proponents did not expect the project to be a closed chapter. Indeed,
history repeats itself when Energy, Telecommunications and Post Minister
S.Samy Vellu recently disclosed that the Federal Government has sanctioned
the resurrection of the Bakun Hydro Electricity Project in Sarawak (NST, BP,
10/9/93).
The original Bakun dam carried a RM8 billion tag and the capacity to
generate 2,400MW of electricity. Today, the cost has escalated to RM30.6
billion. The government envisaged the Bakun dam to be the biggest of its
kind in Southeast Asia and the electricity generated will be transmitted to
Peninsular Malaysia via a 560km submarine cable costing RM3.8 billion. The
massive cost involve is no barrier for the government, for it hopes to
resort to foreign borrowing and the subsequent sale of electricity to
neighbouring countries like Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand (NST, 10/9/93 and
18/9/93).
Samy Vellu boasted that the Bakun Hydro Electricity Project (HEP) had gone
through various stages of financial and environmental impact studies before
the government decided to implement it, hence it has minimal impact on the
ecosystem and environment. Furthermore, the government had, to date, spent
RM35 million on feasibility studies on the project, which was first mooted
more than a decade ago.
Backing the implementation of the Bakun HEP, Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister
Wong Soon Kai said the project "might be the start of more of the huge
hydro- electricity potential in Sarawak which could be developed to make
Sarawak the power house of Malaysia" (BP, 18/9/93). He added: "It is
projected that the whole nation will have to generate at least 36,000
megawatts of electricity by the year 2020 so as to meet its
industrialisation needs."
Echoing the same view, PBDS president Leo Moggie not only offered to help
the State Government counter any environmental opposition to the project,
but also "to explain to everybody on the purpose and benefits of the project
to make sure it is accepted and appreciated" (BP, ST, 21/9/93).
The Bakun issue has become more than a question of the most effective method
of power generation; it has come to symbolise the overall question of
imposing development versus people's participation in the country's
development. The other side of the dam-building coin, that of mass
ecological destruction, social upheaval, disease and impoverishment, is
rarely shown to the public.
Despite headlines on dams worldwide such as "Thousands Rally Against
'killer' Dam Project" (BP, 27/12/89), "Another Dam, Another Ecological
Disaster" (ST ,3/ 9/90), "1257 Dead in China Dam Burst: UN" (BP, 4/9/93) and
many more in the international media, the Malaysian and Sarawak governments
have not even classified the Bakun project as serious enough to warrant a
full environmental review.
The Bakun dam is proposed across the Rejang river. Following the original
(1986) plan for the project, the Bakun dam will be 204 metres high spreading
over an area of 695 sq.km. (larger than the size of Singapore island) with a
catchment area of 14,750 sq.km. As a consequence, 173,000 acres of forests
will be submerged. Many of the tributaries of the Balui River will be
flooded. Much of the development will be centred around the Belaga district
in the Kapit Division of Sarawak, about 650km from Kuching, the capital
city. About 5,000 Orang Ulu living in the area will be uprooted from their
native customary land and traditional life.
In addition, incidences of serious water-borne diseases, such as
schistosomiasis and malaria, will threaten the lives of people living
downstream. These diseases are easily spread by snails, mosquitoes and other
organisms which thrive in the lakes created by the dams.
Some architects in Sibu are already worried that if the Bakun dam is built,
safety of the houses in the Sibu, Sarikei and Kapit Divisions of Sarawak
will be threatened (SH, 20/4/93). Among the calamities will be the collapse
of houses if the water level goes down 4-5 feet from the present level. They
pointed out that the government has said many good things about the project,
but it has not mentioned how it will concretely settle the problem of threat
to the houses downstream or the possibility of houses collapsing.
A famous architect in Sibu was quoted as saying that some of the government
projects on drains have already shown signs of collapsing and houses along
Oya Road and Tionghua Road were slanting. Once the Bakun dam is built, all
the houses in Sibu that uses bakau log as their piling foundation will be
adversely affected to different levels (SH, 20/4/93).
Groups such as the World Wildlife Fund For Nature (WWF) Malaysia, the state
opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP) and the Environmental Protection
Society of Malaysia (EPSM) have called on the government to release all
studies on the Bakun hydro-electric dam project which had been renamed the
Rejang River basin project, especially the findings of the study on the
environmental impact assessment (EIA). So far, Samy Vellu has only given
verbal assurances that the EIA of the project had already been done and that
the project was safe and environment-friendly (NST, 21/7/93 and 10/9/93, BP,
22/9/93).
Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is convinced that Bakun is the best bet
for producing enough and cheap power supply for the country, and that the
project will be of immense benefit to the country as it strives towards
industrialisation. The question remains: for whose benefit?
People uprooted by large projects, like the Pak Mun Dam in Thailand, Sardar
Sarovar Dam in India, Aswan Dam in Egypt, to mention a few examples, have
been made refugees in their own land, in addition to the adverse impacts on
the lifestyles of the ousted persons. Will the 5,000 or more natives in the
Belaga district face the same fate - their lives, their history and their
future being traded for development in the guise of overcoming the energy
shortage? (Source: Various newspapers: BP- Borneo Post, ST-Sarawak Tribune,
SH -See Hua Daily, NST - New Straits Times)
--- * Origin: Asia Pacific Solidarity - Sarawak (90:600/108)--