KUCHING: The Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) government stressed that the cascading dams built on rivers in the state are only intended to generate renewable energy.
GPS chairman and Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said the cascading dams will not touch Native Customary Rights (NCR) lands, settlement nor go against the interests of the people.
“There are people including the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who oppose us (Sarawak government) building a cascading dam from the river water source.
“I won’t force them… if they don’t want (for the dam to be built), it doesn’t matter because we have a new concept but if they really oppose it, they will lose in generating renewable energy.
“When generating this renewable energy through the dam, we do not touch the Native Customery Rights (NCR) land nor the population settlements. We will only do it at the river which is a government asset to produce energy from water sources,” he said.
He said this when officiating at the national level World Water Day celebration at the Kuching Waterfront here today.
In light of this, the Premier ensured that the Sarawak government placed high importance to sustainability of nature and water management, hence, the need for cascading dams.
However, he said it is undeniable that there are NGOs that did not know about the concept of cascading dams.
“They (NGOs) feel that they need details about the implementation of the project because they think that it is suspicious.
“So I said if that’s the case, we go somewhere else to the people who want it, which we are now doing in Sungai Ga’at, near Kanowit and Song in Kapit, because they want resources from the dam,” he said.
Following this, he said that when Sarawak has energy, other economic sectors will also flourish thus improving the lives of the people.
“The GPS government does not want to jeopardise the people. Therefore, we need to use common sense to rationalise what we do,” he said.
