MALAYSIA: Giant dam plan swamps life in longhouses
Copyright 2001 The Herald (Glasgow)
September 17, 2001
By Rohan Sullivan Sungai Asap, Malaysia
The Malaysian government is moving 10,000 tribal people off their traditional lands on Borneo island to make way for the massive Bakun Dam in a move atttacked by environmental groups.
Uyan Apoi and her family are among the tribespeople who are moving to make way for the biggest dam in south-east Asia.
She sits splitting cane for baskets on the verandah of her new home. Her pierced earlobes, stretched almost to her shoulders, swing as she works. "There is no river here," says Uyan. "Finding daily food is difficult. There is no hunting ground, no fishing."
A pet project of Mahathir Mohamad, the prime minister, the (pounds) 1.8bn project includes a 670ft dam and a 2400 megawatt hydroelectric power station.
The dam will flood 172,010 acres of rainforest, an area one-and-a-half times the size of Singapore , and submerge at least 15 villages of the Iban people in central Sarawak state. Environmental and native rights groups say the plan is a disaster that will destroy the habitat of 100 endangered species and wipe out a native culture already battered by rampant rainforest logging.
Critics say the dam is also an economic white elephant.
"The dam is unjustified, unnecessary, and should not go ahead," said Meenakshi Raman of Friends of the Earth Malaysia.
Government officials say the project will meet the growing population's fuel needs and that excess power could be sold.
The Sarawak government, a Mahathir ally with links to logging and construction industries, began emptying traditional longhouse villages in the Balui River basin in 1998. Residents were moved to resettlement villages and told they would be compensated for their old homes.
Now the residents complain the government has been slow to set compensation for their old homes, or provided only meagre payments that make the new homes far too expensive.
In Sungai Asap, a three-hour drive from the nearest road, residents talk about abandoning the government-built homes and returning to the forest.
They say the three-acre plots allocated to each family do not produce enough food. There is no running water or schools.
Friends of the Earth last year revealed that compensation quickly ran out and the only work available was labouring on palm oil plantations for (pounds) 1.80 a day.
"This is the first time in their lives that they have to buy rice, meat, fish, vegetables, electricity and water," the report said.
The rich cultural life of the forest is dying, it added. People are idle and frustrated. Alcohol and drug abuse are creeping in.
"Life is much harder," said Anjan Jok, whose village will be submerged. "In Long Geng we had fruit trees. Here, the land is not enough to support us."
But James Masing, who heads the resettlement programme, has dismissed villagers' complaints. "They are just being lazy, because there are jobs everywhere at the plantations," he said.