Officials defend work on giant dam

Officials defend work on giant dam

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian environment officials yesterday rushed to the defense of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for launching preliminary work on a giant dam project slammed for its potential environmental impact.

Mahathir gave the go-ahead last Monday for a local company, Ekran Bhd., to begin work on the project in the southern Sarawak state which will flood 18,000 hectares of forests to generate some 3,000 megawatts of electricity.

But the premier was criticized by the opposition which accused him of making a mockery of the country's environmental regulations, which required a detailed study of the dam's impact on the nature to be conducted before construction began.

Environment officials, however, said yesterday that Mahathir had acted consistently with the law.