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.