Community demands clarification on proposed Tutoh/Apoh cascading dam amid confusion

File photo for illustration purposes only. Photo credit: Rebecca Matthews from Pixabay

KUCHING, Jan 20: The local community has demanded for clarification regarding the proposed construction of a cascading dam in Tutoh/Apoh.

Managing director of SAVE Rivers Celine Lim, in a statement yesterday (Jan 19), said the recent statement from the Deputy Minister in the Premier of Sarawak’s Department (Labour, Immigration, and Project Monitoring) Datuk Gerawat Gala’s regarding the cascading dam project in Tutoh/Apoh has led to confusion among the local community.

According to her, Gerawat’s statement is in direct opposition to earlier statements from Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg, who was reported by a national English news portal on Jan 14 as saying that affected communities had written support letters and that the project had essentially already been greenlit, together with an earlier article in local English daily that claimed the dam plans had come from the communities themselves.

“Either communities came up with these dam plans and requested it, as the Premier has suggested, or no consultations have occurred, as the deputy minister has stated.

“It cannot be both. We have not heard of any communities that support these plans. How were these requests presented? Who presented them to the Premier? Affected communities have more questions than clarity on this matter,” she said.

On the same note, Sagung Raja from Ba’Marong, a Penan community along the Tutoh river, in replying to Gerawat’s statement saying to the community to “be rational instead of getting agitated and emotional prematurely”, said that as the directly affected communities, they could oppose this project at any stage.

He pointed out that this is the right afforded to them, and to say their opposition is premature is irrelevant.

Meanwhile, a signatory of the first letter sent to the Premier’s office in November 2023, Willie Kajan, said that local communities are yet to receive any response to their repeated inquiries made through official channels.

He pointed out that they have written letters to request more information, as they only found out about these proposed projects through the newspapers.

“It is because we heard nothing back that we ran the petition to primarily state that we cannot and will not give consent or approval to any projects before any meaningful engagements and consultations are done.

“We are running this petition to document our sentiments and concerns and to request further information.

“As much as we want development, we also need to understand the scope of a project. Even though there are claims by the State that cascading dams are minimal in their socio-environmental impact, how do we know that until information is communicated to us directly?” he questioned. — DayakDaily