Environmentalist call for end to work on Bakun dam
Environmentalist call for end to work on Bakun dam
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Green groups demanded yesterday an immediate halt to work on a giant dam proposed to power Malaysia's energy-guzzling industries after a report confirmed their "worst fears" on the project's threat to the environment.
"Work must be frozen unless there are other studies to show beyond a shadow of doubt that this project is economically essential," Gurmit Singh, president of the Environmental Protection Society of Malaysia (EPSM), said of the Bakun hydro- electric dam.
The 15-billion-ringgit (US$6 billion) dam, under construction in Malaysia's eastern Sarawak state, will be Southeast Asia's biggest after China's Three Gorges Dam when it is completed in six years, inundating an area the size of Singapore.
Not only will it clear nearly 70,000 hectares of tropical forests in Sarawak, but an environmental impact assessment (EIA) on the project -- released Saturday -- said the biodiversity of a surrounding 1.5 million hectares would also be affected.
The EIA report said the terrestrial habitats of all species around the dam will be removed and aquatic habitats altered, while removal of vegetation and destruction of vegetation ecotypes was inevitable.
It added that wildlife, fishes and lifestyles of the 5,000 people in the area, made up of mostly farmers, would be affected.
The dam's catchment area supports more than 800 species of plants, including 67 protected species, 104 fish species and 229 mammals and bird species, of which 43 have protected status.
"The EIA report confirms our worst fears on the environmental threat posed by this dam," Singh said.
"It is also a mockery of public accountability as the project has been launched before the report's release and the people cannot exercise their fundamental right on whether to approve or reject the project," he added.
The 318-page report issued on Saturday was the first of a four-part study on the dam, conducted by a group of 25 experts from state-owned Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and funded by the project's developer, Ekran Bhd.
It was made public after nearly two years of protests by EPSM and its 14 members of environmental and non-governmental organizations since the government voiced plans to go ahead with the dam.
The government first dreamt up the project -- Malaysia's largest and costliest yet -- in the 1980s, but shelved it after citing lack of funds and environmental concerns.
Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, however, reversed the government's stand last year, saying the dam was essential for the nation's energy needs in the future and awarded Ekran Bhd. the main contract to build it.
The dam is projected to have a capacity of some 2,400 Megawatts by the year 2,000.
It is expected to channel about 1,000 MW from Sarawak on Borneo island to energy-guzzling factories in peninsular Malaysia and supply the rest of its power to Indonesia and Thailand, all through submarine cables laid on the bed of the South China Sea.
Singh said despite the government's claims that it needed the additional power to fully industrialize Malaysia by 2020, "there's no evidence there'd be enough demand to meet the loads of megawatts they're generating."
Experts said Malaysia already had a capacity of nearly 7,600 MW through state-owned power firm Tenaga Nasional, against a current demand of about 6,000 MW.
Another five private electricity companies licensed in 1992 are expected to push up supply to 13,000 mw by 1998. With Bakun, the capacity would soar to 15,400 MW by 2000, when usage would only be about 9,900 MW based on a 13 percent growth in annual demand.