Ahh, these folks are really thirsty. Not even before the dust of the Selangor dam has settled, the gods of big dams (as Arundhati Roy calls them) are already eyeing the next prize - two dams in the distant reaches.

Why so far? Well, Selangor has been busy damming all its available rivers - not to mention dirtying the others - that there are no more places left to dam in the whole of Selangor. The Selangor river is the last pristine source left. Well, not now no doubt, with all those big machines on its banks.

So now Pahang has to sacrifice its rivers, water and future development for us folks here in the Klang Valley. Beware Pahang folks. We are coming back for more, make no mistake.

The dams, the Kelau and the Telemong, will be huge compared to the Selangor dam or the other dams in Selangor. Kelau Dam will drown 4,090 hectares and the Telemong another 1,532 hectares. The Selangor Dam, in contrast, is "only" 600 hectares, the size of Subang Jaya.

The Kelau and Telemong are each on the opposite side of Karak town. Water will be taken from the dams and piped to a tunnel, 5.2 metres in diameter, 45 kilometers under the Main Range to emerge near Pekan Hulu Langat Batu 18.

Note that two dams have been proposed at the same time. Based on past issues like the toll, and petrol increases, among others, my cynical mind is already working overtime. When the rakyat protest , the powers-that-be will reassuringly say, with great humility to the wishes of the people, that they will scrape one of the dams.

The people, feeling that they have achieved a monumental struggle, will go home happy. We have to compromise lah. Well, the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the dams has suggested that the Telemong dam be scrapped. Once the rakyat 's voice has started in motion, the bowing-to-the-wishes-of-the- rakyat motion can then start.

(Even as I was blabbing way, I was rudely interrupted by a message saying that the Mentri Besar of Pahang has asked the Department of Environment to scrape the Telemong because it will drown a few graveyards - a sensitive issue. They are indeed sensitive to the people. I wish they are as sensitive to those who have to go on living - those who will be dispossessed by the dam.)

The Kelau dam would displace 30 households from Felda schemes and 61 Orang Asli families from Sungai Temir. The Orang Asli have a knack of being in places where dams and other development projects are proposed - the Selangor dam with the Orang Asli of Kg Peretak and Kg Gerachi, the KLIA project, Bukit Lanjan, among others.

But they will have to make sacrifices for the development of the country. And for us thirsty Klang Valley folks. Surely they understand that.

Dispossessed by development

The People Before Profit 2000 Conference, organised by human rights group [#1]Suaram[/#] and environment group Save Our Sungai[#2](SOS)[/#] Selangor, is going to look at the overall impact of the various types of "development" on people - people who are dispossessed by development, and quite often not consulted on the development that will displace them.

These people include Orang Asal in Sarawak dispossessed by a pulp and paper mill, including the Penans by logging, Orang Asli by dams and airport, urban folks driven away by highway projects, development that brought toxic wastes to people's doorsteps, Danga Bay project in Johor to come to built more leisure places for the affluent at the cost of the poor, the urban settlers (or if you must, the "squatters"), etc.

A few groups of Orang Asal and Orang Asli will be at the two-day conference, on Saturday and Sunday, at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. For more information, please call Suaram, 03-7784 3525, fax: 03-7784 3526.

DR ROSLI OMAR is an academic interested on the impact of science and technology on society and environment (being bred on the white-heat of technology creed himself), be they dams, biotechnology/genetic engineering, or polluting machines. He believes technology, as used at present, is sustaining an unsustainable development - the worst of all possible paradoxes. Watch this space for more of his comments on the EIA.