Bakun dam
Sarawak’s Taib family has come under attack again for being almost single-handedly responsible for the environmental and social destruction befalling the biodiversity-rich Sarawak.
A new Bruno Manser Fund study reports that plans to dam virtually all the rivers in the Malaysian state’s interior for hydropower will result in “cultural genocide” and the devastation of hundreds of thousands of hectares of rainforest.
It also names a number of international companies including Sinohydro and The China Three Gorges Corporation as being complicit and the Fund demands that all work should be halted.
This is not the first time the Bruno Manser Fund, a Swiss non-governmental organization (NGO), has detailed allegations of huge levels of corruption against the family of Abdul Taib Mahmud – Sarawak’s long-term chief minister, finance minister and minister of natural resources – and to Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS), the flagship of the Taib family’s business empire.
The new report, “Sold Down the River. How Sarawak Dam Plans Compromise the Future of Malaysia’s Indigenous Peoples” (here), examines the projects that make up the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE).
By 2030 the ambitious plan expects investment of USD105 billion but will hit the indigenous cultures from Sarawak’s interior, such as the Kayan, Kenyah, Penan and Kelabit, with the report saying they will face “extinction”. The paradox is that Sarawak is one of the few places in Asia that faces a power oversupply without any of the future 12 dams going ahead. In all, a staggering 50 hydroelectric dams with a capacity of 20-GW are being planned
“The current peak demand in Sarawak is around 1000 megawatts (MW) and is thus far less than the power that can be produced by the recently completed Bakun dam alone, which, with a capacity of 2400 MW, is Asia’s largest dam outside China,” says the report.
It is apparent from detailed company analysis and contracts for SCORE that parties are more interested in financial betterment than a sustainable future for Sarawak. The Fund builds on an earlier report, “The Taib Timber Mafia. Facts and Figures on Politically Exposed Persons from Sarawak, Malaysia” , which put the assets of the Taib family at over USD20 billion. Taib himself, who has been closely linked to illegal logging activities in the state for over three decades, has been credited with USD15 billion by the report which, if accurate, makes him Malaysia’s richest man.
He is currently under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s (MACC), as has been Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) for handling his money. MACC will be looking at the last 30 years of Taib’s policies which have overseen the massive deforestation in Sarawak, leaving only an estimated 5 percent of primary forests spared from logging.
Sarawak’s remaining rainforests are currently being destroyed at a rate three times faster than in Asia overall, mainly for the planting of oil palms. Over one million hectares, around one twelfth of Sarawak’s land was already covered with oil palm plantations in late 2011.
But such scale of environmental destruction needs the help of experts and the Bruno Manser Fund report lists contractors, consultants, financiers and a series of cross-holding and cross-managerial positions.
Sinohydro Corporation was named as being involved in the construction of Sarawak’s Bengoh dam, built to secure the water supply for Kuching. It is also involved in the Murum dam project. The other big Chinese dam construction company involved in Sarawak is the China Three Gorges Corporation which is currently in charge of Murum dam. The China Exim Bank (China Export-Import Bank) was also involved in funding the Bakun dam.
“In order to benefit from the strong investments linked to the Sarawak dam plans, foreign corporate actors, such as Australia’s Hydro Tasmania, Snowy Mountains Engineering Company (SMEC), GHD, the US consultant MWH Global, Norway’s Norconsult, Germany’s Fichtner… have concluded a ‘pact with the devil’ and are assisting the Taib government with its momentous dam projects,” says the report.
Most of these companies purport to support ‘sustainability’ and claim high environmental credentials which turn out to be dictionary definitions of greenwash. Australia’s state-owned Hydro Tasmania not only provides staff to Sarawak Energy and various projects, Entura, its subsidiary and consultancy branch has been instrumental is the dam projects expansion.
“Entura was hired by Sarawak Energy to review the Bakun dam in 2010 and an overall assessment of the Batang Ai dam and the options for capacity increase in 2009. In addition, Entura conducted the feasibility studies of the proposed Belaga, Pelagus and Metjawah dams between 2008 and 2009. During the investigation, Entura even discovered another potential site for a hydroelectric project, Punan Bah, which is currently undergoing a feasibility study. Entura also advised Sarawak Energy repeatedly on matters concerning the Murum Dam,” said the report.
However, should you visit Hydro Tasmania’s web site it says: “At Hydro Tasmania, we are committed to reducing our environmental impacts wherever we can. We do this by working with experts in environmental research, looking at areas like threatened species, environmental flows, fish migration, and the general health of our waterways…… We believe protecting our environment for future generations isn’t just common sense – it also makes good business sense.”
The repost also names the funding agencies behind the Sarawak dam plans. They include Malaysian banks, RHB Bank, EON Bank and AmInvestment Bank, as well as Kuwait Finance House and Kenanga Investment Bank, which is a joint venture between the Taib family’s Cahya Mata Sarawak (CMS) and Deutsche Bank.
