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.