Bengoh dam: Awang Tengah's accusation misplaced

KUCHING, Aug 5,  2014:  Public Utilities Minister Awang Tengah Ali Hasan has been taken to task for blaming the "blameless" native communities over the delay in the impoundment of the Bengoh dam.

 

 See Chee  How (picture): Unfair to blame the natives

"His accusation is misplaced and it shows that he does not know what are happening on the ground regarding the delay in impounding the dam," Sarawak PKR vice chairman See Chee How told reporters today.

See, who is also the Batu Lintang State Assemblyman, was responding to Awang Tengah's accusation that the natives had refused to move out of the Bengoh dam catchment area due to the instigation by the Opposition politicians.

Awang Tengah alleged that their refusal to move out was a major factor in causing the delay.

The dam, which was completed in 2010, will supply raw water for the Batu Kitang treatment plant which provides treated water for the consumers of Kuching and Samarahan Divisions for the next 30 years.

It will have a capacity of 144 million cubic metres and will produce a lake with a surface area of approximately 10km

It is not known when the RM310 million dam, started in 2007, can be used.

The dam  will increase the plant’s treated water output to 2,047 mega litres per day (MLD) compared with the current 786 MLD.

See is a lawyer representing the natives in taking court action against the government. The case is now due for judgment in the High Court.

Picture:  Bengoh dam

See said that the minister is off-target in blaming the native for the delay.

"About 70 families who have earlier refused to move out of the Bengoh catchment area have now resettled in areas outside the catchment areas.

"These families have wanted fair compensation for the loss of land and other properties," he said.

“While it is true that the affected villagers have filed a legal action to call for the declaration of their native customary land rights over their ancestral land in Upper Bengoh, these villagers had not in any way hinder or impede the construction of the Bengoh dam, nor did they made any attempt to inhibit or hold back the impoundment of the water reservoir.”

“On the contrary, the native landowners fully realised the importance and significance of the public purpose this Bengoh Dam water reservoir project serves.

"They did not make any attempt for interim injunction to stop the dam building works, and they had fully resettled themselves outside the reservoir area even before the dam was completed," See explained.

He added it is unfair to point fingers at the native Bidayuh villagers who are living in the Upper Bengoh region and have no access to newspapers unless their relatives bring the newsprints to them, usually during weekends.

"The baseless accusation against these defenceless indigenous communities are most unreasonable," he added.

He added that the delay in the impoundment for more than three years was wholly due to the differences and disagreement between and among the government authorities and the contractor.

"The native Bidayuh villagers in the Upper Bengoh villages are blameless. The civil action could have been settled in the instance when the case was filed," he said.

See urged Chief Minister Adenan Satem to call for a ministerial briefing by the  ministries, departments and the developer involved in the Bengoh Dam project to understand the problem of delay in the implementation of the Bengoh Dam water reservoir project, to identify the weaknesses and flaws in the project implementation and undertake the necessary to ensure that there will be no further delay in its implementation.

"It is a case of improving governance and take on the governmental executive responsibility when the government takes on the problem and address it, rather than evading the same by pointing fingers at others, particularly the innocent native communities.

“From the statement that was made by the minister, blaming the native villagers for filing native land rights claims and opposition party members for instigating these villagers not to be resettled, thereby delaying the impoundment of the Bengoh Dam water reservoir, it is clear that the minister and the state government was misinformed and misled on the implementation of the project," he said.