Residents living in areas surrounding the site of the planned Kelau Dam in Pahang have been urged to voice their objections to the project, as it is believed to have disastrous consequences on their lives and welfare as well as the environment.

At a seminar on 'The Kelau Dam and its effects to the environment' in Bentong this morning, speakers called on the audience, who are residents from within and around the Lakum Forest Reserve, Kelau Felda Scheme, Krau Felda plantations, Sungai Temir Orang Asli Reserve and Kelau Rancangan Tanah Pemuda, to act before the government decided to carry on with the project.

The Orang Asli of Sungai Temir, in particular, are slated for relocation to Sungai Bilut to make way for the dam.

Centre for Orang Asli Concerns director Colin Nicholas noted that such a move was another way of killing off the indigenous group as they derived not only their livelihood but their whole culture and traditions from the particular forest in which they have lived for generations.

"We have objected to this dam since 1999 and we will continue to protest," he said in his speech to a packed hall at the Bentong Municipal Council building in Raub.

Water transfer plan

The Kelau Dam is part of the larger Pahang-Selangor inter-state raw water transfer plan conceived during the tenure of former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to head off the water crisis expected to hit Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Putrajaya in 2010.

Critics of the project have questioned, however, whether the immense social and environmental dislocations that will occur is worth the water that the dam and the inter-state water pipeline will bring to Selangor.

There are cheaper, and environmentally sound alternatives to the proposed dam and pipeline, which will involve an unprecedented 44km tunnel cutting through the Malaysian Main Range, they note.

According to Zubir Harun who heads the Lakum Forest Reserve Rehabilitation Action-Committee which organised the seminar, similar dam projects elsewhere in the world funded by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation which is behind the Kelau Dam have been disastrous.

In a memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Najib Razak on Thursday, endorsed by 5,000 signatures from local residents, Zubir had cited the destruction of property and wildlife that he believes will follow the construction of the dam.

"The dam will involve a clearing of 1,549 hectares of the Lakum Forest Reserve and destroy flora and vegetation," he said after the seminar.

Johor floods a lesson

The flooding that will occur over 16 percent of the forest will not only lead to the loss of 88 species of plant and animal life, but also threaten endangered species who live in the reserve, said Zubir.

He also said the floods that occurred in Johor should serve as a lesson to the authorities on the disastrous effects of ill-planned dams or other projects.

"That is why it is irrational to build the Kelau Dam for the purpose of transferring water from Pahang to Selangor," he said.

It is believed that the government will decide soon whether to embark on the inter-state water transfer or not. The Ninth Malaysia Plan states that the water transfer project is to begin either this year or the next.

Among others who spoke at the seminar were former Human Rights Commission of Malaysia commissioner Hamdan Adnan and head of the Kuala Lumpur-based Global Environment Centre Faizal Parish.