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KOTA KINABALU: The decision to proceed with the controversial Papar dam will haunt Parti Warisan Sabah, with state elections just around the corner, says Save Papar River Committee Representative Jackly Lasimin.
He said that seeing how the authorities seem to be ignoring people’s protests against the project, he added that it will affect people’s support for the political representative in Papar in some way.
“It is puzzling that the leaders and authorities are not even willing to consider alternative methods. Why spend so much on a project that will destroy lives, damage our lands and the environment? Jackly said.
He said that multiple protests have been made and that geologist and professor Felix Tongkul has made suggestions for alternative sources of water, but added that they have all fallen on deaf ears.
Jackly said the villagers had hoped to have a dialogue session with those responsible for the project, including political leaders, but their wait was in vain.
“There is also no clear, concrete and definitive explanation of the status of this project and details such as its exact location. We have so much contradictory information when we ask the different authorities, ”he said.
Jackly urged Acting Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal to listen to the plight of the rakyat and use the RM3bil earmarked for the project to develop rural parts of Sabah and build reservoirs or water treatment plants in place of the previously known dam. like the Kaiduan Dam. .
Similarly, Diana Sipail of the Penampang Task Force Against Kaiduan Dam (TAKAD) said they are disappointed in Shafie’s statement on Tuesday (September 1) that the Papar Dam project will continue if Warisan wins the election. .
“He is inconsistent. It gave us false hope and now we are going to suffer, ”he said.
Diana asked if an interim government has the right to announce any project and, if so, who announced it and when was the project approved?
“We are also getting all kinds of inconsistent information about the Papar dam; for example, someone would tell us that it is still in the proposal stage, while another would tell us that it has been downsized and relocated, ”he said.
He questioned authorities and political leaders about their refusal to consider alternative environmentally sustainable measures that would not cost thousands of lives or earth.
“We want our ancestral rights and our land to be protected and saved, we want our human rights to be respected,” said Diana.
Meanwhile, environmentalist Harjinder Kler said in a post on her Facebook page that the Warisan-led state government appears determined to destroy the environment by giving the green light to projects that were strongly rejected.
He said these projects were the Papar Dam, Tanjung Aru Ecological Development and the Balambangan Silica Mining Proposal, adding that they were strongly rejected and subsequently abandoned during the Barisan Nasional era.
“Has the pandemic taught us nothing about protecting the environment? Do something now or you will lose the election, ”he said, referring to Parti Warisan Sabah and its partners.
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