Sarawak to proceed with RM4bil Baram Dam construction

MIRI: The Sarawak state government announced that the construction of the RM4bil Baram Dam in interior northern Sarawak would proceed.

Chief Minister Tan Sri Adenan Satem (pic) announced on Saturday that he had secured the support of the majority of the community leaders in Baram for the project that will drown an area half the size of Singapore Island and uproot more than 20,000 people.

"I have secured pledges of these community leaders that they will support the state government in this Baram Dam project.

"The majority of the Baram people want the project to start. It is only the minority who opposed it.

"The construction will commence as soon as possible," he told a press conference after a closed-door dialogue with representatives of the Baram Orang Ulu groups at a hotel here.

Asked on the massive process of relocating the 20,000 or more affected folks in 25 longhouses, Adenan said that it would be dealt with in the best possible manner.

The Baram Dam is to be located at a site between Long Kesseh and Long Naah some 200km inland from Miri.

Based on the proposed construction plan, the dam project will flood some 34,000 hectares of forests - equal to roughly half the size of Singapore.

Asked how the state government will handle the massive relocation exercise, Adenan said the state will use internationally accepted procedures to resettle the affected residents after carrying out dialogues with them to discuss the compensation and resettlement plans.

Baram Dam will be about half the height of the 210 metre tall Bakun Dam in Belaga district in central Sarawak.

Baram Dam will generate some 1000Mws of electricity to be channelled for the use of the industries in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy belt.