Secret power plan would devastate Sarawak’s rainforest with 12 new hydropower plants
Secret power plan would devastate Sarawak’s rainforest with 12 new hydropower plants
mongabay.com
July 23, 2008
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Environmentalists have called on the Malaysian government to develop a comprehensive energy policy, following the discovery of secret plans to build a network of power plants across interior Sarawak on the island of Borneo.
The confidential document, “Chinese Power Plants in Malaysia — Present and Future Development”, was accidentally published on a Chinese web site. It details power projects planned for construction in Sarawak, between now and 2020, including two coal fired power plants and a dozen hydropower dams across Sarawak’s rainforest.
According to Bruno-Manser-Fonds, a Malaysian NGO, “the dams could possibly submerge several Penan, Kelabit and Kenyah villages, potentially displacing at least a thousand people. One of the proposed dams, Tutoh dam, raises questions on whether Mulu National Park will be able to maintain the UNESCO World Heritage Site status as the dam may submerge parts of the national park.”
Gurmit Singh, the chairman of Malaysia’s Centre for the Environment, Technology & Development (CETDEM), said that the plans reflect inconsistencies in the country’s energy and environment policies.
“It illustrates an energy planning strategy that is supply driven and inconsistent with the principles of sustainable development,” he said. “At the same time, it fails to adequately factor in impending environmental threats such climate change, which is projected to cause water scarcity and ecosystem disruptions… We simply cannot mortgage our children and our grandchildren’s future for the sake of short-term gains.”
The proposed dams will increase Sarawak’s generating capacity to many times that which is used by Sarawak’s population. Bakun dam alone has the capacity to generate three times the amount of energy that is currently consumed by the state. Bakun dam, which is under construction, has the potential to generate 2400MW of electricity.
KML with all the Sarawak dams, plus photos of the forest to be drowned at each site
This article is based on materials provided by Bruno-Manser-Fonds