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.