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Extracted from
Malaysiakini - Letters
No, not
another two dams in Sarawak
SM
Mohamed Idris
Oct 10,
We are writing to express our strong opposition against the
proposal made by the
The Bakun Hydroelectric Project alone has incurred a huge cost, caused the
forced relocation of 10,000 persons and will inundate 69,000 hectares. Today,
although its construction has yet to be completed, the dam may be adversely
affected by the development of three large plantations within its water
catchment site.
According to the 9th Malaysia Plan, in 2005, the energy reserve margin of
The low energy demand in
The construction of aluminium smelters in close proximity to hydroelectric dams
are a common phenomenon and sometimes such smelting plants are able to purchase
energy at a very low rate at the expense of the taxpayers' money. Because the
energy from Bakun clearly has no potential customers, and more so for the
proposed Murum and Limbang dams, we have a real cause for concern.
The proposal to turn
The electrolysis process used to smelt alumina can involve more than 25
dangerous chemical substances including toxic carbon and fluoride compounds and
heavy metals like mercury and lead, cyanide and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAH). Depending on the methods in which the smelting wastes are
managed, such substances can be spread by air, water, soil – polluting
surrounding plants and entering into the human food chain.
Smelters also are known to produce a variety of dangerous gases from fluoride
compounds, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen dioxide to sulphur dioxide, which can
cause acid rain. Exposure to hydrogen sulfide and other fluoride compounds can
cause much damage to the human respiratory system as well as serious skin
disorders and pulmonary edema.
The
At the province level, it has the highest death rates from cardiovascular and
cerebrovascular diseases as well as malignant tumours. Worse, a fifth of its
Beluga whale population are also inflicted by cancer, something which has never
been observed elsewhere. Tissues from the whales were indeed found to be
contaminated by a high rate of PAH compounds.
In Texas, its Health Department has forbade the consumption of fishes and crabs
in the Lavace Bay, close to an aluminium processing complex, which is found to
be contaminated by mercury. In
Thus it is also not surprising that workers of aluminium processing plants are
also known to generally suffer from a variety of health problems, from urinary
tract, skin and lung cancers to mesothelioma.
In terms of emissions of greenhouse gases, the smelting of a ton of alumina
will produce 7 to 12 tons of carbon dioxide due to its high energy consumption.
However, the smelting process of alumina also produces other greenhouse gases
which are far more powerful than that of carbon dioxide.
The emission of a ton of tetrafluoromethane in 100 years, will have the same
impacts with the emissions of 6.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide. A ton of
hexafluoroethane has the same capacity with 109 ton of carbon dioxide. The
latest generation of alumina smelting plants will produce around 0.3 to 1 kg of
such gases for a ton of processed aluminium.
All the facts above will be even more worrying because the annual capacity of
the Bintulu plant is proposed at 550,000 metric ton in its initial stages
before being increased to the maximum capacity of 1.5 million metric ton. This
is indeed a very high production rate.
Recent news has reported that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report
for the project will be completed in 15 months' time. In our view, this process
must be made with full public participation before any approvals are being
given, as required under the Environmental Quality Act, which is in force at
the federal level.
However, we would still like to request that the
The writer is president, Sahabat Alam