***********************************************
WORLDWIDE
FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS
NGOs
Worldwide Oppose Bakun Dam in Malaysia
***********************************************
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.
g.b.
*******************************
RELAYED
TEXT STARTS HERE:
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add that the deal is tantamount to dumping outdated technology.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)
###RELAYED
TEXT ENDS###
This
document is a PHOTOCOPY and all recipients should seek permission from
the
source for reprinting. You are
encouraged to utilize this information
for
personal campaign use; including writing letters, organizing campaigns
and
forwarding. All efforts are made to
provide accurate, timely pieces;
though
ultimate responsibility for verifying all information rests with the
reader. Check out our Gaia Forest Conservation
Archives at URL=
http://forests.org/gaia.html
Networked
by:
Ecological
Enterprises
Email
(best way to contact)-> gbarry@forests.org