Mahathir told to rethink dam projects
Mahathir told to rethink dam projects
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Environmentalists renewed their call on
Saturday for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to reconsider
Malaysia's plans to build a pair of huge dams.
The activists condemned the environmental and social impact of
the dams and lashed out at the government for ignoring the plight
of people forced to resettle because of them.
The dams singled out for criticism, both under construction,
were the giant Bakun dam in the eastern state of Sarawak and the
Selangor river project in Selangor state.
Gurmit Singh, secretary-general of the Center of Environment,
Technology and Development Malaysia told AFP that if the
government "keeps on pushing for dams without justification them
adequately, I think there will be a backlash".
Gurmit, who was attending an activists' meeting on the issue,
said public opinion had been "dismissed. all in the cause of
water supply and energy".
He said studies in Brazil had shown hydro-electric power
generated was not even a clean source, as rotting vegetation in
the dams produced more methane than thermal power stations.
"I am always laughing when the government says Bakun is clean.
I say it is not clean as far as green house gas is concerned," he
said.
Mahathir in early June defended Malaysia's big dam projects
and said local opponents were more interested in embarrassing the
government than saving the environment.
The Bakun dam will be 205 metres high (676 feet) and will hold
back a catchment area the size of Singapore.
Costing nine billion ringgit (US$2.36 billion), it will create
an eventual generating capacity of 2,400 megawatts.
The size of the dam has attracted fierce criticism for its
effect on the environment and on around 10,000 locals who have
already been moved out of their homes.
Antares, an affected resident of the Selangor dam in Kuala
Kubu Baru, north of Kuala Lunpu, told AFP the dam would destroy
ancestral land of the Temuan tribe who have been living there for
hundreds of years.
"The land clearing that is going on is akin to seeing someone
being cut up and raped. An army of machines rip apart the trees
and boulders are blasted," he said.