The Bakun Hydroelectric Dam

The Bakun Hydroelectric dam was one of the most controversial projects in Malaysia. It was severely opposed by NGO's, environmental activists and the opposition parties as this project was said to cause extensive environmental damage.


This project was initialised in the 1970s and Bakun was chosen as the ideal site to build a dam from four shortlisted sites. The dam was built to have the capacity of generating 2400MW of electricity According to Insan(1996), this project is located 37 kilometres upstream from Belaga, on the Balui river which is within the Sarawak state. This project has been said to be the largest concrete face rockfill hydroelectric dam in Southeast Asia. Insan said that this dam takes up 69,640 hectares of reservoir area where the lush rainforest in this area was felled. Another 1 505,180 hectares of land area was used as catchment area.

As Sarawak has large amounts of rainfall and many natural water catchments, the hydroelectric dam was suitable to be built here. Other than that, this dam was important as it produces enough electricity for the state's own needs. According to Insan(1996), a 650 kilometres of undersea cable to cross the South China Sea was proposed in order to supply some of the electricity from this dam to the Peninsular Malaysia.

This dam caused tremendous effects on the environment. One of it is large area of rainforest were lost. According to Jomo et al. (2004), the rate of logging increased when the construction begun. Jomo also reported that logging was done excessively where the forest areas not within the dam site were logged. This project has also caused displacement of about 69,640 hectares of terrestrial habitat where Insan(1996) reported that 12 totally protected species and 93 protected species were affected.

Clearly, serious deterioration of water quality in the reservoir and the river downstream were predicted by Insan(1996). As the water in the reservoir is stagnant, algae and microorganisms can prosper comfortably in it. The formation of algae causes the level of oxygen to become low and this would suffocate aquatic animals slowly. Other than that, this stagnant water would become an ideal breeding ground for bacteria that causes water-borne diseases. As the flow of the river was slowed down by the dam, water level or volume downstream would have decreased significantly. This results the downstream part of the river to be unsuitable for aquatic organisms to live in. There would not be enough water supplies for the area around the river downstream causing these parts of land areas to become infertile. We should also keep in mind the effects in case of dam failure. If the dam bursts, the effects would be catastrophic. Downstream areas would become flooded with millions of cubic metres of water. This would endanger not only animals living in the vicinity, but would also put lives of people living downstream at risk.

As this project is completed, Government needs to take precautions to avoid life threatening problems and to protect the environment from effects caused by its own actions before things get out of hand. They should join forces with NGO's and environmental activists so that a good and effective method of preservation can be concocted.



References


Insan(1996). Power play: Why we condemned the Bakun Hydroelectric Project.

Kuala Lumpur: Vinlin Press Sdn. Bhd.

Jomo, K.S., Chang, Y.T., Khoo, K.J., Lee, H.A., Lockhead, J, Loh, H.K.W.,
et.al.(2004). Deforesting Malaysia. London: Zed Books.

Timed Paragraph ( Land filling or Zero waste scheme?)

Waste disposing schemes are important in order to manage waste in any nation in order to keep a country clean. There are two waste disposing schemes that play a significant role in most countries, developed and developing countries alike, which are the 'zero waste' scheme and the land filling scheme. In my opinion, the 'zero waste' scheme is suitable to be implemented to manage waste in my country.

There are many differences between these two systems. The land filling scheme is where waste is dumped in to an allocated site. As for the zero waste scheme, waste is to be reused or recycled. This system emphasises on reducing waste products, if possible, to a zero percent. The zero waste scheme is expensive as waste need to be sorted out to materials that can be reused or recycled, and materials that are completely useless. When we use these criteria , the zero waste system may seem to be not preferable as high cost has to be born by the waste management company and the general public. The land filling scheme is cheap as all the waste need to be dumped at the the dump site without undergoing any processes. So, initially this land filling scheme would seems to be a tempting choice of scheme when we see it in the cost perspective.

The land filling scheme has many environmental effects. One of it is that these land filling dump sites are very ideal place for disease causing organisms and microorganism to breed. This would threaten the lives of not only humans but also other living beings. The worst case scenario created by this scheme is a serious epidemic. Other than that, this scheme would cause waste to seep in to underground rivers or groundwater source which would cause the water supply to be contaminated. This would reduce the number of clean water sources.

Even though the 'zero waste' scheme might seem to be expensive, there are many benefits that we can get from this system. As this system emphasises in the term 'reuse and recycle', new industry would sprout to support this scheme. The recycling industry would get a shot in the arm as the supply of recyclable materials accumulated would increase. This would also benefit the environment as recycling materials are more environmental friendly than producing or manufacturing materials from newly extracted materials. For example, in the aluminium manufacturing industry, recycled aluminium consumes only 1% of the electricity needed to extract and process aluminium from aluminium core. When less electricity is consumed,then less coal would be burned to produce electricity and this would reduce air pollution significantly. This might a very ideal situation where other factors are neglected but when you you see the picture as a whole, you will see that the use of energy would reduce significantly in most manufacturing industries and hence it is possible to reduce air pollution.

The zero waste scheme is an ideal scheme for the current age as resources are depleting significantly and there is high awareness on preserving the environment. In conclusion, I stress again that the 'zero waste' scheme is suitable to be implemented in Malaysia.

The Three Gorges Dam

China has undertaken the Three Gorges dam project in order to support her growing need of electricity. Despite warnings by many environmental organizations on the effects of this project on the environment but China seems to not bother about these warnings by continuing the project.
In my opinion, this project has more positive effects than negative ones. This dam would be able to produce electricity equivalent to 18 nuclear power plants. The effects in case of any accident for hydroelectric dam would not be as severe as accidents caused by nuclear power plants. People might say that it would be more environmental friendly if many smaller dams are built to produce equivalent amount of electricity. But, you should keep in mind that when smaller dams are built, more area need to be cleared for preliminary infrastructures such as roads. More jungle areas need to be cleared to give way for these many dams.
This hydroelectric dam would produce electricity in a cleaner manner compared with the conventional coal produced electricity. This dam would depend on only water to produce electricity compared with other types of power plants. For example, nuclear power plants need supply of uranium to keep it running. Uranium is a very dangerous source of energy as it is radioactive and highly unstable.
In conclusion, I agree with China's move to go on with the Three Gorges dam project.

The Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project

Cause-Effect

The Bakun Hydroelectric Dam Project

Malaysia has been making the headlines for the past decade for undertaking many mega projects such as the construction of Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), KL Tower, KL International Airport (KLIA), Kuala Lumpur Central and many more other projects. One of the controversial projects is the Bakun Hydroelectric Dam in Sarawak. This project was put on hold several times as its effects on the environment need to be studied thoroughly .This project was completed in 2007. This dam was built in the Sarawak state to produce enough electricity to support the needs of the people of this state. As it is one of the isolated states in Malaysia, it cannot get enough electricity supply from any other parts of country. This project was initiated not only to produce electricity for Sarawak but also to supply electricity to Peninsular Malaysia using undersea cables. Hence, it can be said that this project is crucial for future developments in Sarawak.

There any many problems that arises as consequences of this project. One of it is the loss of habitat of animals residing in the dam area. As this dam takes up a massive land area, jungles at this area need to be cleared to give way for this project. Animals would be forced out of their habitat when this project goes on full swing. The area would be flooded with water when the dam is operational and this would be a death sentence for animals that are still living there. Another thing that we should keep in mind is that the dam area is populated by 12 protected animal species and 93 protected plant species. Once the dam is operational, this animals and plants species would be inevitably forced into extinction.