Extracted from Malaysiakini - Letters

No, not another two dams in Sarawak

SM Mohamed Idris
Oct 10, 07 3:43pm

We are writing to express our strong opposition against the proposal made by the Sarawak state government to build another two hydroelectric dams in Murum and Limbang as well as our concern on the manner in which the government conducts its economic and development planning in the state.

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 Sarawak was 28.7% and with the anticipated power generation increase of 400MW by the year 2010, the reserve margin by then will still be around 23.5%. Thus in truth, Sarawak does not need the three dams at all.

The low energy demand in Sarawak means that the construction of the Bakun, Murum and Limbang dams will benefit high-energy consuming industries like that of aluminium processing rather than the public.

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 Sarawak into a centre of the aluminium industry is indeed a high-risk venture. Many mining companies, including those from the aluminium industry, have often created controversy abroad as a result of allegations on environmental and human rights violations.

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 province of Lac-Saint-Jean/Saguenay in Canada, with four aluminium smelting plants with the combined capacity of 1.23 million per ton annually, has a very high cancer rates amongst its population and the highest rate of infant disability in the country.

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 India, fluoride contamination in its water sources has caused its population to suffer from brittle bones as well as dental, gum and skin diseases and a host of fluorisis symptoms.

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 Sarawak state and federal governments to take the most rational decision, which is to scale down the capacity of Bakun and call off the proposed Murum and Limbang dams. The proposal to turn Sarawak into a centre for the aluminium industry cannot be said to be a sustainable development option.

The writer is president, Sahabat Alam Malaysia.