Residents return home as fears over Bakun disaster subside

comments     Yap Mun Ching     Published     Updated

Residents of Belaga who evacuated from their homes since last Thursday returned over the weekend after flood waters threatening to bring down the Bakun coffer dam subsided.

According to Kuching-based indigenous non-government organisation Borneo Resources Institute of Malaysia (Brimas), 700 residents of a Belaga village who camped out on higher grounds last week returned to their homes slowly as heavy rains in the area cleared up.

Brimas executive director Raymond Abin told malaysiakini the villagers left their homes after part of the Bakun coffer dam was washed away, raising the possibility that the entire structure would collapse under the strong water currents of the Balui river which was swelled by the heavy rain.

The coffer dam is being built to create a dry area across the Balui river to enable the construction of the main Bakun dam wall estimated at 210m high. However, the structure made of earth and mud had also been vulnerable to strong water currents of the river which had several times led to its partial collapse.

"The district officer did not want to cause public alarm so he gave the villagers a choice. He said he could not guarantee their safety and he asked them to move voluntarily," said Raymond.

According to him, the three diversion tunnels built to redirect water flow are too small to cope with the large volume of water after heavy rain. Water overflowing at the top of the incomplete coffer dam then resulted in the collapse of parts of the structure.

Regular occurrences

Abin added that although the floods are regular occurrences during monsoon seasons in May and December each year, the villagers panicked last week after Bakun dam engineers allegedly warned police and the district officer that the coffer dam could collapse around 3am on Friday.

"The police informed the people if they heard a shot in the air or some kind of signal, they should run for their lives," he said, adding that the villagers who could not sleep for fear of the imminent danger later evacuated their homes.

Meanwhile, the Brimas spokesperson also said the contractor of the coffer dam, Global Uphill Sdn Bhd, is expected to face cost overruns as it is unlikely to be able to complete the coffer dam within the stipulated contract period.

The offer letter for the project allowed the contractor a 12-month period expiring on June 15 this year to complete the coffer dam.

However, Abin said when he visited Belaga in December 2001, construction works appeared to be behind schedule as the structure stood only at some 90m while a complete coffer dam should be over 200m high.

Last year, the government awarded the RM74.2 million coffer dam project to Global Uphill Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Ekran Bhd. The coffer dam had collapsed several times during the 11-month construction period due to strong currents of the Balui river.



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