By: STEPHEN THEN
30 Sept 2010
MIRI: Native folk in ulu Baram in northern Sarawak want the proposed Baram Dam to be scrapped as Sarawak was already acquiring the Bakun Dam.
They are alarmed over the move by Sarawak authorities to start clearing land to construct a highway to facilitate the construction of the proposed 1,000 Mws Baram Dam, about 200kms inland from Miri.
They have formed a ''Baram Protection Action Committee'' to lobby for the proposed Baram Dam to be aborted and are appealing to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak and Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to assure Baram folk that the dam construction would not proceed.
They said that since the Sarawak government would be buying the 2,400 MWs Bakun Dam from the Federal Government, there was no reason for any more dams to be built in Sarawak.
They have launched a campaign to gather 20,000 signatures to be submitted with a memorandum of appeal to the two leaders, saying that the Baram Dam had not even gone through the Social Impact Assessment and Environmental Impact Assessment stage.
Baram Protection Action Committee chairman Philip Jau came to Miri on Thursday with several community leaders and said that 3,000 Baram folks had already signed the appeal.
Jau, who is from Long Laput, said the Baram folk have seen increased movement of outsiders into ulu Baram in recent months for land clearing works.
''They came into sites near our longhouses and started to clear plots of land belonging to us. When we asked them who they were and where they were from, they said they were from Kuching.
''They said they were hired by the state government to survey the land slotted to be cleared for the building of a highway into Long Keseh where the Baram Dam is to be constructed.
''How can they start this sort of ground work when we people in Baram have not even agreed to the construction of the Baram Dam?
''The EIA and the SIA for the Baram Dam have not even been compiled. We are very worried about what is happening in Baram now,'' he told a press conference.
Jau came to meet Sarawak Natives Customary Rights Land Network chairman Romuald Siew, Sarawak Coalition for Natural Environment chairman Raymond Abin, and lawyer and former Baram MP Harrison Ngau, to seek legal advice.
Siew said that there was no urgency for yet another dam in Sarawak.
''Bakun Dam and Murum Dam will produce 3,300 MWs of electricity. Together with the other existing dams in the state now, there would be a big surplus of power, '' he said.
Siew appealed to the Federal Government to persuade the Sarawak government not to proceed with any more dam constructions.
Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) Youth chief for the Telang Usan state constituency, Dennis Ngau, confirmed that the Sarawak Land and Survey Department had deployed workers into ulu Baram to start ground survey on the Baram Dam.
''The surveys on the road access to the proposed Baram Dam have started, but the actual dam project is still in the planning stage.
''The Baram Dam construction has not begun. It will come much later and the Baram folks will be consulted on whatever is happening.
''PBB wants the Baram Dam to benefit the local natives. We will be holding more dialogues with the people of Baram to alleviate their fears,'' he stressed.
Asked if this meant the construction for the Baram Dam was already approved, he said the state government had already agreed in principle that the Baram Dam would be built, but it had not fixed any date for the actual construction to begin.
Source: The Star
URL: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2010%2F9%2F30%2Fnation%2F20100930160423&sec=nation
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