Native contractors from the large resettlement community at Asap and Koyan in Upper Belaga in central Sarawak have appealed to the Bakun dam builder - Malaysia-China Hydro Joint Venture (MCH) - not to exclude them from job opportunities, even small ones, as work on the project goes into full swing.

They see a lot of contract work opportunities but are worried that MCH, which was awarded the main civil works for RM1.8 billion in October 2002, may not consider the local contractors qualified as they are too small to undertake any contract work.

A Kayan contractor from Asap, Merang Jok, said he was unhappy with the main contractor because he had not been able to secure any job since work started to revive the stalled Bakun project.

The hydro-dam project with a generating capacity of 2400 megawatts will cost RM5.8 billion, including the electrical packages such as turbines and transmission lines. It is said to be the largest in Asia outside of China and is scheduled for completion in September 2007.

Merang was speaking at a gathering over the weekend in Asap. It was attended by more than 1,000 people, including Hulu Rajang MP Billy Abit Joo, Belaga state assemblyperson Stanley Ajang and newly-appointed Pemana Umek Jeno.

He is one of many Orang Ulu contractors who are disappointed at not being able to get any job from MCH, which is a Sime Engineering Services Bhd-led consortium that includes Sino Hydro (formerly known as China National Water Resources and Hydropower Engineering Corporation).

Only with the biggies

Daniel Levoh, a Belaga-based Kayan businessman and a Kapit District councillor, who was also present, said that Merang had told him that the Bakun main contractor could not give any job to small-time contractors "as they deal only with big companies."

The local elected representatives and other local leaders have promised to raise the contractors' grouses with MCH directors.

The main civil works, which include the removal of millions of cubic metres of earth, building of a concrete-faced rockfill dam, the construction of eight power tunnels, the spillway and power house, are now going into full swing.

To-date, some 11 percent of the main civil work have been completed, with about 1400 workers on site, and construction work is expected to peak in a year's time with a workforce of about 3500.

The weekend gathering at Asap was held to mark the recent appointment of the new pemanca (a community head title which is a rung below temenggong) in an Orang Ulu ceremony called 'mejuaran pemancah.' It went on almost the whole day and included many speeches.

According to Levoh, the speeches focused on politics and Bakun.

Levoh, a Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) local leader, told malaysiakini : "We have all agreed, despite our affiliation to different political parties, to work together for the betterment of the community."

The Asap and Koyan resettlement area comprises 15 longhouses with a total population of about 10,000 people. The five main ethnic groups there are Kenyah, Kayan, Lahanan, Ukit and Penan.

Acknowledging that there were problems in resettling such a large number of people, Levoh also said that the different adaptation mode of the people to the new environment was one big obstacle.

"There are those who are happy with the new surrounding and there are the elderly people who are not so sure how to adapt to a similar situation. With government's help they are trying to adjust by planting pepper, cocoa, vegetables, setting up village shops, etc.

"The government is giving out agricultural subsidies such as seedlings, fish fries and chicks to the subsistence farmers for their own consumption and to earn some income.

"But with all the promises of help when they were resettled five years ago, the people had expected many things free," Levoh said.

'Write off arrears'

He added that many had now run up unpaid bills "in the thousands" each for water and electricity. As a result, many families have had their water and power supply cut.

Many had no income too so they could not pay, he added.

"I have advised them to try and pay because if they don't, the debt will accumulate and that would compound the troubles they are now facing."

He said the Asap and Koyan settlers had brought up their problems to the politicians.

Levoh hoped that the authorities would write off the existing arrears as bad debt and allow the natives a new start to pay for whatever electricity and water consumption consumed.

The government had spent RM500 million on building 15 brand-new longhouses (each with a church, community hall and football field) in Asap and Koyan. The dwelling unit for each family was priced and sold at RM53,000.

Although all the units have been allocated and occupied but not many have signed the housing loan forms. Levoh said.

He did not say whether this means the Orang Ulu families are not obligated to pay or that they are being or will be asked by the government to move out.

Bintulu-based Indigenous People Development Centre (IPDC) head and social activist Sem Kiong Angin, who visited one of the longhouses recently told malaysiakini said some of the timber used in the houses was rotting because of the poor quality.

Health hazards

The people in the resettlement area are also facing potential health hazards because of what some government officials in Belaga have admitted as "poor supervision of the rural water supply system (by the Public Works Department)."

The supervision of the water supply system has been placed under Bintulu supervision since 2002. It was earlier under Belaga.

"Poor administration has led to the present unsatisfactory situation," they said.

"Something should be done about it otherwise there could be potential health hazards."

There was a report of a cholera outbreak in Asap in early last month.

A written notice to this effect was posted on the wall of the Bakun Resort. Dated early April and signed by the Bakun health centre medical officer-in-charged, it asked the people not to drink untreated water but only boiled water or bottled mineral water.

Visitors were even advised not to enter Asap.

Meanwhile, in an interview with malaysiakini at Belaga town, Levoh appealed to the Bakun dam builder to construct boat-passenger waiting sheds at Banggu near Bakun Dam and a Simpang Pat or Aloi (for Penans who usually stay overnight in the jungle waiting for the next day's boat if they missed it earlier ).

The MCH has appointed two liaison officers, one based in Belaga town and the other in Asap, as co-ordinators between the people and company.

It has also set up an Internet communication training (ICT) resource centre and providing relevant training for youths, mostly from Asap and other parts of Belaga, as job apprentices to be eventually absorbed by the contractors for various types of jobs.

But several of the youths who this week graduated from a two to three months' training in Kuching lamented that many of them in a batch of 67 had not found jobs, although they had already applied to MCH.