Tenaga: No power from Bakun

KUALA LUMPUR: Tenaga Nasional Bhd said it would not be sourcing power from the Bakun hydroelectric dam in Sarawak and has mapped out alternative plans to meet the increasing power demand in the peninsula.

“There will be no transmission from Sarawak in 2015, neither will there be in 2017.

“Bakun’s (and Murum’s) power, according to Sarawak government, is needed for the state. We are… we were just a potential buyer, and since there is no capacity to buy, we will not be buying from Bakun.

“Bakun, as we know now, will not be utilised for semenanjung,” said chairman Tan Sri Leo Moggie at Tenaga’s second quarter (2Q) financial results briefing.

This effectively means the proposed RM10 billion undersea cable project is unlikely to take off. Tenaga and Sarawak Energy Bhd were also supposed to lease the Bakun dam from the owner, Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd.

Read more at: http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/in-the-financial-daily/164399-tenaga-no-power-from-bakun.html

Nomadic Penan Group Appeals for Food in Search and Rescue Operation

Miri: A group of eight nomadic Penan families from Ba’ Puak is seeking help from the public at large for food as their daily necessities had drained out after carrying out almost five months of search and rescue (SAR) operations for one of their men who went missing around the forest in Loagan Bunut National Park last year.

Headman of the group Jepery Moyong, 28, appeals to the general public to help them with foods and provisions to enable to sustain their community SAR operation.

“We would be starving soon and have no choice but to ask for help since we are severely facing shortages of food”, he said.

“In this kind of peat forest, it is not easy to find food and further more we don’t want to cause trouble and accuse for illegal encroachment into the national park”, Jepery lamented.

Emang Moyong, 33, went missing on November 2 after performing at a cultural event organised by Petronas at its gas pipeline project camp site in Tinjar.

He was then purportedly asked to do video filming on the Penan’s way of hunting with blowpipes at Loagan Bunut National Park.

He was said to have being threatened by the so-called film crews. Since then, the Penans have launched a community search and rescue (SAR) operation in the thick forest around the park area.

The Malaysian Police had also carried out a 3-weeks SAR operation sometimes in November and December but were unsuccessful. The police had closed the case as their operations had failed to trace and locate Emang whereabouts.

“We are determined to continue with our search even though the authorities had ceased their SAR operation”, said Jepery.

“We will not stop our SAR operations as we believe that Emang is still alive”, he said.

According to Jepery, the incident that led to Emang’s disappearance was that he had being frightened and being too traumatise he could be hiding from somebody. “This situation can happen to any nomadic Penans as we are seldom in contact with outsiders”, he said.

Emang’s wife Usun Malin, 26 and two children Maria, 8 and Mathew, 6, are still hopeful to find him alive.

“We would only be relieved if his remains are found that is if he had died, and then we will go back peacefully to Ba’ Puak”, said Usun.

The nomadic Penan group of Ba Puak is among the few Penan nomads left in the rainforest of Sarawak. There are about 15 families at their settlement in Long Selulung, Ba’ Puak in upper Tutoh River area in the interior part of Baram District in the northern region of Sarawak.

The Loagan Bunut National Park has an area of 10,736 hectares and was gazetted by the Sarawak State Government as totally protected area on 29th August 1991. It is more or less about 100km from Long Selulung in Ba’ Puak.

Raymond Abin, national coordinator of Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) is sympathetic with the plight and distress of the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak that they are facing at this moment.

He called upon any civil society organisations, government and private agencies and the members of the public to help in the community SAR operation and provide assistance in-kind to the nomadic Penan Ba’ Puak.

He said any assistance given can be done so through Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (SCANE) at Lot 1046 Shang Garden Shoplot, Jalan Bulan Sabit, Miri, Sarawak. Tel: 085 423044 Email: scanenews@gmail.com

Tribes of Amazon Find an Ally Out of ‘Avatar’

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
Published: April 10, 2010

VOLTA GRANDE DO XINGU, Brazil — They came from the far reaches of the Amazon, traveling in small boats and canoes for up to three days to discuss their fate. James Cameron, the Hollywood titan, stood before them with orange warrior streaks painted on his face, comparing the threats on their lands to a snake eating its prey.

“The snake kills by squeezing very slowly,” Mr. Cameron said to more than 70 indigenous people, some holding spears and bows and arrows, under a tree here along the Xingu River. “This is how the civilized world slowly, slowly pushes into the forest and takes away the world that used to be,” he added.

As if to underscore the point, seconds later a poisonous green snake fell out of a tree, just feet from where Mr. Cameron’s wife sat on a log. Screams rang out. Villagers scattered. The snake was killed. Then indigenous leaders set off on a dance of appreciation, ending at the boat that took Mr. Cameron away. All the while, Mr. Cameron danced haltingly, shaking a spear, a chief’s feathery yellow and white headdress atop his head.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/11/world/americas/11brazil.html?ref=global-home

Salco power deal talks under way

12 April 2010

KUALA LUMPUR: Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS), which sees exciting times ahead with the implementation of the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), is looking at raising funding on a non-recourse basis for its 40% share of the aluminium smelter at Samalaju.

Managing director Datuk Richard Curtis said negotiations for a power purchase agreement for the Salco (Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd) aluminium smelter were ongoing and once concluded, final feasibility studies on the design, construction, commissioning and operation of the smelter would commence.

“Negotiations between CMS, Rio Tinto Alcan and Sarawak Energy Bhd to finalise a power purchase agreement for the Salco smelter are ongoing,’’ he told StarBiz in an email reply.

“Progress is being made towards a mutually agreeable set of terms that will underpin a long-term relationship spanning decades. While these negotiations have taken longer than initially expected, it is important for all parties to work through the details of the contracts to ensure that they stand the test of time.’’

Read more at: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/12/business/6011782&sec=business

Penan woman seeks help locating missing husband

April 8, 2010, Thursday

MIRI: Penan woman Usun Malin, 26, is appealing for help to locate her husband who went missing under mysterious circumstances more than three months ago in jungles near Loagan Bunut.

PLEASE HELP US: Usun with her daughter Maria.

Usun was in Miri yesterday with one of her children to seek help to locate her 33-year-old husband Emang Moyong together with Ba Selulung headman Jepery Moyong, as well as villagers Selapan Malin and Ajang Kiew.

The group met with lawyer Harrison Ngau, who is Sarawak Conservation Alliance for Natural Environment (Scane) national advisor, at the office of Brimas — a non-governmental organisation.

“We sympathise with the predicament of the family and hope that the relevant authorities and the public come forward to help,” said Harrison.

On behalf of the family, he appealed to the relevant authorities and the public to assist Usun’s family, which has been deprived of the sole breadwinner.

Usun said Emang disappeared last November when he and Selapan were brought out of their settlement centre by an ex-community leader purportedly for a video shoot on the Penan nomadic way of life.

However, according to Selapan, instead of a video shoot, they were brought by the ex-community leader by four-wheel (4WD) drive vehicle to the Loagan Bunut area.

At some point, the two Penan men were said to be abandoned by the ex-community leader and approached by at least 10 men from two vehicles which had been following them.

Fearing for their lives, Selapan said he and Emang then ran into the jungle.

According to Selapan, that was the last time he saw Emang.

China denies Mekong responsibility

Will this happen to us once the 12 dams are all built in the future?

Even if not to blame for Mekong drought, still a bad neighbor

When will China realize that a lesson it learned during the 2003 SARS crisis has broad applicability?

In Bangkok leaders are meeting to discuss a different crisis that may implicate China. The Mekong is running at a historic low and some 14,000 Thai villages are affected by the drought. Thailand claims several new dams in China are to blame. (The map at right shows the new dams China is building along the Mekong). Meanwhile, the government of Cambodia does not blame China -- possibly on account of the level of Chinese investment the country is receiving.

Read more at http://jotman.blogspot.com/2010/04/mekong-drought-even-if-not-to-blame.html