FEER : Bakun Dam Back on Track
Yap Yok Foo
Issue cover-dated 18th January 2001
Bakun Dam Back on Track
Malaysia has resurrected its massive Bakun hydroelectric-dam
project--a casualty of 1997's Asian financial crisis. The government's
Economic Planning Unit last month began calling for bids for the
controversial 15-billion-ringgit ($3.9 billion) project, say financial
executives. They add that the tender specifications indicate the dam
will not be scaled back, as Premier Mahathir Mohamad had earlier
indicated. The dimensions of the "megaproject" in Borneo Island's
Sarawak state are staggering. A 205-metre-high dam will hold back a
reservoir larger than Singapore. It would have a production capacity
of 2,400 megawatts and much of this would be channelled through the
world's longest undersea electricity cables (these alone account for
66% of the projected cost) to Peninsular Malaysia. The project was
criticized at its inception because of its likely effects on the
environment, the need to resettle Bakun's inhabitants and doubts about
its viability. The scaled-down version had called for a smaller dam
serving only Borneo, but the financial executives say the government
is calling for bids on the undersea cables as well. Given the
ringgit's fall against the U.S. dollar in the past three years, the
cost of the project could soar to 20 billion ringgit.
**************From Uncle Yap**************
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