BAKUN DAM THREATENS BORNEO RAINFORESTS
Environmental activists are worried about the effects of the colossal
Bakun Dam project nearing construction on the island of Borneo.
The main dam will impound the Rajang River in the Malaysian state
of Sarawak on Borneo's north coast. The design calls for a dam 700 feet
high and more than half-a-mile wide. The project will flood almost 300
square miles, an area roughly the size of New York City.
The project will force about 5,000 people from their homes,
displacing 14 separate communities. The Sarawak government has not
announced relocation plans or details of compensation.
Indigenous peoples claim much of the forest area the dam will
flood. Sarawak authorities have already jailed some people for blockading
roads to protect their land from nearby logging projects.
Environmental and indigenous-rights activists in Malaysia are
demanding that Ekran, the private developer, complete an Environmental
Impact Assessment on the project. They also want a public review of all
studies that have been done, and they want the review panel to include
environmental groups.
Power play
Malaysian economic planners intend the dam to provide
hydro-electric power to Sarawak, Sabah (the neighboring Malaysian state),
Brunei (an independent, oil-rich sultanate), and Kalimantan (the
Indonesian part of Borneo). Dam builders hope to generate 2,400 megawatts
of power. By comparison, that's enough to serve Philadelphia and San
Francisco combined.
A planned undersea cable will allow Ekran to send electricity to
Singapore and mainland Malaysia. There's also speculation about a
connection to the Philippines.
The initial phase of the project will last 10 years and cost US$6
billion. The Bakun project is supposed to produce more than a billion
dollars in annual income.
Ekran's executive chairman is Datuk Ting Pek Khiing. He's a
Sarawak timber tycoon and hotel builder.
Ekran plans to make money by clearcutting trees from the area to
be flooded. The Business Times of Singapore says Ting values the timber at
US$400 million.
The 10 percent solution
Sahabat Alam Malaysia (Friends of the Earth Malaysia) quotes news reports
that the displaced indigenous people will get about US$40 million. That's
one-tenth of what Ekran says the timber alone is worth, and one-quarter of
what the developer plans to invest in a chip mill!
The $40 million settlement figure, if correct, would provide about
US$8,000 per person. That amounts to four times the average per capita
income in Sarawak, but four years is scant compensation for lifetimes and
generations of sustainable livelihood in the rainforest.
For more information, contact Sahabat Alam Malaysia, 19 Jalan
Kelawai, 10250 Penang, MALAYSIA. Tel: 011-604-376-930, Fax: 011-604-375-
705.
>From Action Alert #100, September 1994
Published by:
Rainforest Action Network
450 Sansome St., Suite 700
San Francisco, CA, 94111, U.S.A.
E-mail: rainforest@igc.apc.org
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Tel: (415) 398-4404
Fax: (415) 398-2732
Rainforest Action Network is a non-profit
activist organization working to save the world's
rainforests and support the rights of indigenous
peoples. Begun in 1985, RAN works internationally
in cooperation with other environmental and
human-rights organizations on major campaigns to
protect rainforests.