NGOs Oppose Malaysian Dam
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NGOs Worldwide Oppose Bakun Dam in Malaysia
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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises
7/8/96
OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE
The IPS news service reports on continued NGO pressure worldwide to scuttle
the large-scale dam planned for Sarawak, Malaysia. The dam would flood
69,640 hectares, including large tracts of forest, and cause the forced
resettlement of some 9,000 people. Recently the Malaysian High Court ruled
that the environmental impact statement was illegal. Targets for an
international campaign include the Swedish-Swiss engineering company
designing the dam. This article was emailed to me for distribution. All
such submissions are welcome.
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am just restating this point to avoid confusion.
ENVIRONMENT: NGOs Worldwide Oppose Bakun Dam in Malaysia
By Ramesh Jaura
BONN, Jul 4 (IPS) - Some 120 non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
worldwide have urged the Swedish-Swiss engineering corporation Asea Brown
Boveri (ABB) to withdraw from the controversial Bakun hydroelectric power
project in the Sarawak region of Malaysia.
In a letter to the ABB's senior executive Percy Barnevik in Zurich, the
NGOs warn that the company's involvement in the large- scale dam "directly
contradicts" its "principled stand on sustainable development".
They add that the deal is tantamount to dumping outdated technology. "Both
Sweden and Switzerland have long abandoned large-scale hydroelectric
projects as environmentally or socially acceptable forms of electricity
generation," the NGOs argue.
The large-scale dam will involve the flooding of 69,640 hectares of land,
an area larger than Singapore, including large tracts of forest and the
forced resettlement of some 9,000 people mainly belonging to the Kayan,
Kenyah, Kajang, Ukit and Penan ethnic groups.
"Agriculture and fisheries downstream of the proposed dam will be adversely
affected and the risk of a major catastrophe through dam failure cannot be
ignored," said the letter, dispatched Tuesday.
The note was made available to IPS Thursday by Heffa Schuecking of
Urgewald, a German environmental NGO. Other signatories from altogether 20
countries include Peter Bossard of Berne Declaration in Switzerland, Carla
Benelli of Crocevia in Italy and Sarah Tyack of Friends of the Earth in the
United Kingdom.
Patrick McCully of the International Rivers Network in the U.S., Mats
Djurberg of the Swedish Society for Nature, and Ellen Hofsvang of FIVAS in
Norway have also signed the letter which is being backed by 29 members of
the European Parliament.
The signatories recall that over the years the ABB had issued statements
supporting the need for sustainable development. The company's 1994 report,
entitled 'ABB Environmental Management Programme, Initial Review', said:
"Protection of the environment is among our top corporate priorities. We
address environmental issues in all our operations and public policy."
The NGOs point out that ABB was acknowledged for playing "a leading role in
the Business Council for Sustainable Development", now the World Council
for Sustainable Development.
"We are therefore deeply disappointed to learn of the company's involvement
in the Bakun Hydroelectric Project, an involvement which we believe
directly contradicts the company's principled stand on sustainable
development," the NGOs said in their letter copied to the World Council for
Sustainable Development.
Everywhere in the North -- Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, France and the
United States -- there was a distinct tendency to move out of large-scale
dams, they added.
Officials at the World Bank and other multilateral aid agencies had made
similar observations and the Bank now appears to be moving out of the large
dam-building business.
"Indeed there is a growing consensus within the development community that
large dams represent an outdated, inefficient, uneconomic and
environmentally and socially destructive technology," added the letter.
The NGOs further pointed out: "We respect the sovereign right of Malaysia's
people to decide their own development path, whilst honouring the
international agreements to which Malaysia is a party.
"However we find it deeply hypocritical that a company as progressive as
ABB should be involved in actively transferring technologies which are no
longer considered acceptable in its home countries. We also find it at odds
with ABB's stated commitment to promoting the transfer of eco-efficient
technologies in the world."
The NGOs argue the U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development and other
international and national bodies have repeatedly stressed the importance
of public participation in sustainable development.
ABB itself has recognised this in its commitment to "communicating openly
with interested parties, in the communities and countries where ABB
operates as well as internally about its environmental performance".
In the case of Bakun, however, there had been little public consultation on
the project. On the contrary, local residents and NGOs had repeatedly
complained of lack of openness surrounding the project and its planning,
the protest letter said.
The public had been denied access to vital feasibility studies,
consultation with the local indigenous peoples had been extremely limited;
and there had been no process for allowing public comment on the
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), parts of which had still to be
published.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court has recently ruled that the EIA was conducted
illegally and that the government violated Malaysian environmental law in
approving the dam. According to the court, the views of local residents
from the area where the dam is due to be built should have been included in
the EIA.
Besides, according to the NGOs, the government acted "improperly in the
delegating the job of approving the EIA to the Sarawak state government, a
major shareholder in the project".
Given this ruling, and the well-documented failure of the Malaysian
authorities to consult openly during the planning of this project,
the NGOs believe the continued participation of ABB will seriously
undermine the company's reputation and indeed the reputation of other
companies with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
(END/IPS/RAJ/RJ/96)
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