Bakun dam is safe, says senior official

Bakun dam is safe, says senior official

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysia's $5.9 billion Bakun
hydroelectric dam will provide a safe and clean energy supply for
the country's future, Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said
yesterday.

But activists, who unfurled a banner saying "Damn the dam"
while Anwar addressed a seminar on the project, called for
initial work to stop while consultations with non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and local communities continued.

Anwar said construction of the dam would use the latest
technology and international experts to ensure safety.

Work on the dam and power station is due to begin in May.
Workers are now clearing forest and diverting a river.

Bakun will eventually flood an area the size of Singapore in
the interior of Malaysia's timber-rich Sarawak state on Borneo
island and displace 9,000 tribespeople.

Electricity will be transmitted from Borneo to Peninsular
Malaysia via a 650-kilometer long cable under the South China
Sea, by far the longest in the world.

The activists say local residents have not been adequately
consulted about resettlement.

They said industrialized nations no longer build big dams
because of safety concerns and the government has not shown a
vital need for the Bakun project.

Anwar said in his speech that a Reevaluation Board, comprising
experts from around the world, assessed the project and found
that "the design of the dam and its adaptation to the foundation
rock provide for an inherently safe dam".

He later accepted a memorandum from representatives of 40
activist groups.

Three tribespeople from the area have brought a suit against
the government in the Kuala Lumpur High Court to stop the dam.

"We take their views seriously," Anwar said, adding that he
has told the dam consultants to take the views of the NGOs into
consideration and provide answers to their questions about the
safety, viability and necessity of the dam.

But he challenged them to give an environmentally-friendly
energy alternative to hydroelectric power, and ruled out stopping
work while holding consultations with the NGO groups.

Kua Kia Soong, spokesman for the activists, criticized the
government for allowing work to begin on the project before an
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was completed.

In an unusual departure, the EIA was approved by the Sarawak
state government, which has a stake in the project, instead of by
the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.

Kua also questioned the reliability of the underwater cable --
more than five times the length of one connecting Denmark and
Sweden across the Baltic Sea, currently the world's longest.

"What comfort guarantees is the government giving bankers for
such risks to the cables" in the event of sabotage or damage in
the turbulent South China Sea, Kua asked.

The huge costs of building the dam and transmitting
electricity so far by undersea cable will mean Malaysia's state
electric company -- and ultimately the consumer -- will have to
pay more for Bakun's power, the activists said.

Anwar acknowledged the problem, saying Tenaga was having
"tough negotiations" with the dam's operating company over a
power purchase agreement.

Dam builder Ekran Bhd said in December it expected to sign an
agreement with Tenaga by the end of January. The Malaysian
utility is expected to buy most, if not all, of the 1,800
megawatts of power that will be supplied by the dam.