Dam Facts

FACT SHEET

BARAM HYDRO-ELECTRIC DAM PROJECT

The Sarawak Government plans to build more hydro-electric dams purportedly to meet the state’s future industrialisation needs. In addition to the Bakun dam project, the Sarawak Government are planning to build another 12 hydro-electric dams at Ulu Air, Metjawah, Belaga, Baleh, Belepeh, Lawas, Tutoh, Limbang, Baram, Murum and Linau rivers including an extension to the Batang Ai Dam.

Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), 65 percent owned by the Sarawak is spearheading these dam projects.

The project

The Batang Baram is the second longest river in Sarawak. The river drains much of the Sarawak northern region as it originates in the central Iran Mountains at the Sarawak/Malaysia-Kalimantan/Indonesia border. It flows westwards through tropical rainforest in the Baram District to the South China Sea. The Miri Resort City is located at Baram delta.

The Baram Hydroelectric dam site is located along Baram River at about 306 Km from the river mouth. The location of the dam across the Baram River will be between the inflows of the Sungai Patah and Sungai Kahah from the left and Sungai Hit from the right, as going upstream.

The height of the main Baram dam would be 162 m above foundation level. The dam structure across the Baram River has a crest length of 685 m and the crest level is 180 m above sea level. The construction would be designed as a roller-compacted concrete (RCC) gravity dam. Due to the topographical conditions in the project area, a 70m high Saddle dam will be constructed approximately 5 Km south-west of the project site.

Who will be affected by the Baram dam?

If the project goes ahead, an anticipated number of at least 20,000 indigenous peoples will be affected and displaced by the dam. These peoples are the Kayans, Kenyahs and Penans whose longhouses and villages are situated along the course of Baram River valley, locally known as Telang Usan. Their settlements are located below, above and around the project site.

The downstream longhouses/villages are Long Laput, Sungai Dua, Sri Kenawan, Uma Bawang, Long Miri (Daleh Pelutan), Long Pilah and Long Kesseh. In the upstream and within the dam reservoir area are Long Na’ah, Long Liam, Long San, Long Selatong (Kiri & Kanan), Long Apu, Long Julan Asal, Long Julan Pelutan, Long Anap, Long Palai, Long Je’eh, Long Moh, Long Sela’an and Long Semiyang as well as some villages in Akah River that are Long Beku, Ba Abang, Long Tap and Long Tebangan.

The Baram dam would submerge an area of 38,900 hectares (389 sq km) of land and forest. The area is mostly native customary land, and consists of temuda, cultivated lands, gardens, villages, churches, graveyards, community forests and sites of historical significance. The people are going to lose their longhouses, villages, properties, lands and forests as a result of submergence and displacement by the Baram dam.

The construction of the Baram dam will create a catchment area of 896,600 hectares (8,966 sq km). Within the catchment area are some major settlements of indigenous communities: the Kenyahs, Kelabits, Sabens and Penans.

The dam will submerge the existing government schools, Medical clinics, airstrip and other building facilities. There are also logging companies actively operating in the area.

Baram Dam Project Features:

Main dam

Type RCC

Crest of dam 180 m a.s.1.

Height of dam 162 m

Length of dam 685 m

Saddle dam

Type Rockfill

Crest of dam 180 m a.s.l.

Height of dam 70 m

Length of dam 1,290 m

Reservoir

Normal water level 178 m a.s.1.

Minimum water level 177 m a.s.1.

Total storage volume 13,2 x 10⁹ rn³

Reservoir area 389 sq km

Power plant

Installed capacity 830 MW

Design discharge 684 m³/s

Design head 138 m

Average energy generation 5,848 GWh/a

Turbine type Francis –vertical axis

Number of units 4

Catchment Areas 8,966 sq km

FACT SHEET

THE MURUM HYDROELECTRIC PROJECT

WHAT AND WHERE IS IT?

The Murum hydroelectric project (Murum HEP) involves the construction of a 944 MW hydroelectric dam. The dam is the 1^st of 12 new more dams to be built by the State Government of Sarawak. The construction work of the dam has been going on since mid-2008. The dam site is on the Murum River, a tributary of Balui River, about 60 KM upstream of the Bakun Hydroelectric project in Belaga District, Kapit Division of Sarawak.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

The Murum dam is a 141-metre-high Roller-Compacted Concrete (RCC) dam that would be 547 metres above sea level, with a length of crest of 510 metres and crest width of 10 metres. It will flood 24,5000 hectares of land comprising native customary land and forest. The dam catchment area is 275,000 hectares of mainly the Usun Apau Plateau, the ancestral land of several Indigenous communities in Sarawak.

WHO IS AFFECTED?

The project will inundate and require the forced relocation of about 1,000 Penans. There is also some Kenyah-Badengs, who were affected by Bakun dam but have opted for alternative resettlement after refusing to move to the government Bakun Resettlement Scheme at Asap-Koyan in upper Belaga River in 1998.

WHO IS BUILDING IT?

The Sarawak Government has the sole vested interest, being the project proponent and the Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), 65 percent owned by the Sarawak state. The Murum Dam project had been awarded to China’s Three Gorges Project Corporation, which reportedly submitted the lowest bid among eight companies.


The estimated cost of Murum dam project is RM3 billion (875 million USD). To be completed in 2013.

Kenyataan Akbar Penan Murum

Telang Usan Hotel

Kuching, Sarawak.

Tarikh: 15 September 2009

Salam hormat. Selamat pagi kepada tuan-tuan, puan-puan dan suadara-saudari kalian.

Saya bersama kawan-kawan sangat gembira kerana berpeluang dapat berjumpa dengan semua kalian pada majlis yang sangat bersejarah ini. Bagi kami, ini adalah kali pertama sampai ke Bandaraya Kuching.

Untuk makluman semua, kami adalah wakil semua penduduk kampung-kampung Penan di kawasan Sungai Peleiran-Murum, Daerah Belaga, Sarawak. Kampung kami adalah Long Wat, Long Luar, Long Tangau, Long Menapa, Long Singu, Long Malim dan Long Uba dengan bilangan penduduk adalah kurang lebih 1,000 orang.

Kami datang ke Bandaraya Kuching kali ini bukan datang dengan senang hati namun penuh dengan kebimbangan, kerisauan dan ketangisan. Kami membawa keluhan-keluhan hati semua penduduk kampung Penan di kawasan Sungai Peleiran kerana sangat bimbang dengan kehidupan kami sejak bermulanya kerja-kerja pembinaan projek empangan Murum dijalankan.

Sekiranya projek empangan Murum masih diteruskan, maka takungan air akibat empangan akan membanjiri tanah adat kami termasuklah kampung-kampung, harta benda, kebun-kebun, tanah huma dan temuda, buah-buahan, tapak perkuburan dan sebagainya. Kawasan hutan dan sumber-sumber yang mendukung kehidupan kami akan turut musnah. Sekaligus, kami akan dipaksa untuk berpindah ke suatu kawasan yang belum kami ketahui dan tidak bersesuaian dengan keadaan kehidupan kami.

Kami masyarakat Penan juga mahu mencapai kemajuan sepertimana masyarakat lain di Malaysia, khasnya Sarawak. Selama ini, kami sentiasa memohon kepada kerajaan untuk memberi projek pembangunan seperti Sekolah, Klinik Perubatan, Paip air bersih, Pertanian dan sebagainya. Kami tidak pernah memohon pembangunan projek empangan hidro-elektrik seperti empangan Murum.

Kami sedar bahawa projek pembangunan empangan yang telah dibina di Sarawak telah dengan nyatanya gagal memperbaiki keadaan hidup masyarakat yang terlibat. Contohnya, penduduk-penduduk di Skim Penempatan Semula Batang Ai dan Bakun Asap-Koyan sedang menghadapi banyak masalah, kesusahan dan kesempitan dalam kehidupan harian mereka yang sehingga kini masih belum dapat diselesai oleh pihak kerajaan.

Kami juga menyaksi bahawa keadaan kehidupan masyarakat Penan Talun, Long Belangan di Skim Penempatan Semula Bakun Asap-Koyan lebih teruk lagi dibanding dengan sebelum-nya mereka dipaksa pindah akibat pembinaan empangan hidro-elektrik Bakun.

Bagi kami masyarakat Penan di kawasan Sungai Peleiran-Murum juga akan tidak terkecuali dari masalah-masalah dan impak-impak projek empangan sekiranya kerajaan masih hendak meneruskan pembinaan empangan Murum.

Kami sangat bimbang akan kesan-kesan dan impak-impak projek empangan Murum ke atas masa depan masyarakat dan generasi kami.

Dengan ini, kami menuntut Kerajaan untuk menghentikan pembinaan empangan hidro-elektrik Murum demi kesejahteraan hidup masyarakat kami pada masa sekarang dan sehingga ke anak cucu kami kelak.

Sekian, terima kasih.

Kenyataan akhbar dibaca oleh:

Sui Along,

Wakil TK Along Ju dan 6 kampung Penan yang lain di kawasan Peleiran-Murum, Daerah Belaga, Sarawak.