Bakun Dam, Malaysia

Photo: Calvin A. Jemarang

The Bakun Dam on the Balui River in Sarawak, Malaysia, has undergone several delays relating to financing since its conception in the early 1960s and subsequent approval in 1986. Now that China Exim Bank and Sinohydro have become involved, the Bakun Dam has resumed full tilt, like many other global dam projects that are being made possible by China's far-reaching financial investments.

Once built, Bakun dam would be the tallest concrete-faced rockfill dam in the world and the largest dam in Asia outside of China. It is expected to generate 2,400 MW of electricity for Peninsular Malaysia, despite being built in East Malaysia, where Sarawak is one of two states on the island of Borneo. Once completed in 2010, it will generate three times the amount of energy currently consumed by Sarawakians.

Despite the oversupply of energy expected from Bakun, the Malaysian government is currently planning an additional 12 new dams that will displace about a thousand people, according to a confidential document by Sarawak Energy Berhad that was accidentally published on a Chinese website. As a result, the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam) plans to bring various stakeholders together in September 2008 to discuss the proposed project.

The US$1.3 billion Bakun project is being built by the Malaysia-China Hydro JV consortium, led by Sime Engineering Berhad of Malaysia (a subsidiary of Sime Darby and China's Sinohydro). Other members of the consortium include WCT Engineering Berhad, MTD Capital, Northwest Hydro Consulting Engineers, and CHECC. In addition to the 205-meter dam and related power stations, the project envisions about 730 kilometers of overhead transmission lines in East Malaysia, 670 kilometers of undersea cable, and 300 kilometers of transmission line in Peninsular Malaysia.

Location of Bakun Dam, Malaysia

When completed, the Bakun dam will put 700 square kilometers of virgin rainforest and prime farmland under water--a region the size of Singapore. An estimated 9,000 native residents mainly from the Kayan/Kenyah indigenous group will be relocated and expected to pay close to US$15,000 for homes, despite being subsistence farmers with no previous participation in the Sarawakian economy.

Among the social and environmental concerns relating to the Bakun project, the most serious are the destruction of numerous endemic plant and animal species and the ecological damage resulting from the deforestation of 230 square kilometers of virgin tropical rainforest, the threat of possible dam collapse, upstream sedimentation that could shorten the useful lifespan of the dam, and health issues, such as an increase in diseases like shistosomiasis and malaria. The viability of large dams is increasingly called into question in light of climate change, which undermines the water supply to large dams. Thus, Malaysian environmentalists are renewing calls for the government to formulate a comprehensive energy policy that does not depend on large hydropower projects.