Villagers affected by Bengoh Dam not fully compensated

KUCHING: Residents from four villages affected by the construction of the RM310 million Bengoh Dam will not moved until the government pay full compensations on their houses, crops, lands and their other properties.

The government has only compensated their houses and lands that are filled by the dam’s water, but not their farm lands and their NCR lands.

Thus, the affected 359 villages demanded the government to pay everything to them before they move out to the resettlement area in  Kampung Semadang.

The RM310 million Bengoh Dam project began in August 2007 and is set to be fully completed in December this year despite a slight delay.

Coordinator for the Bengoh Dam Resettlement Committee, Pemanca Austin Dimin when queried about issues admitted that there are few unsettled matters which need to be addressed.

“It was true that the affected people wanted all their land to be compensated including those land which are not filled with the dam’s water,” he said.

He said a total of 1,600 people from the four villages – Kampung Taba Sait, Rejoi, Bojong and Semban were  affected by the project.

“There are 155 families who are now squatting in their parent’s house and had demanded the government give them a free house at the resettlement area if they need to move there,” said Dimin.

Dimin said 204 units of houses costing RM48,000 each unit will be built at the resettlement to be purchased by the resettlers.

He said the government is now looking into the social aspect of the affected residents as there was no social aspect studies conducted prior to the implementation of the project.

The Bengoh Dam project uses the latest technology, which has been popularly used around the world, with the construction involved roller compacted concrete (RCC) technology, which is much faster and stronger than conventional methods.


The RCC technology also ensures a good and lasting dam, which has been proven in many developed countries.


The Bengoh Dam is the second project in Malaysia to be constructed using RCC technology after the Kinta Dam in Perak, which was completed three years ago.


The slight delay was also due to multiple factors including heavy rain at the end of last year and early this year.


The production of raw water from the Bengoh Dam is anticipated to meet the increasing demand of the city and greater Kuching and Samarahan area until 2030.


Once completed, the dam would store about 144.1 million cubic metres of water, hence increasing the daily raw water production at the Batu Kitang treatment plant from 786 to 2047 mega litres per day (MLD).


Presently the reservoir at Batu Kitang, which provides most of the domestic and industrial water supply in Kuching, only has a capacity of 786 MLD while the current demand for water in Kuching alone is 635 MLD.


The concern now was to complete the resettlement programme involving 359 families affected by the project.


The building of roads that link Kampung Semadang and the resettlement area began early this year, and is about 70 percent completed.


Syarikat Perumahan National Berhad (SPNB) will provide allocation and build the houses for the affected villagers, but so far at the moment is site clearing is underway.


Earlier this year Energy, Green Technology and Water Minister Datuk Peter Chin had said he would talk to Syarikat Perumahan National Berhad (SPNB) to speed up the allocations and build the houses for the affected villagers as fast as possible and the affected families are expected to move to the resettlement area in June next year.


Naim Holdings Berhad is the main contractor for both the Bengoh Dam and the connecting road to the resettlement area.


Chin has also said the state government was also seriously looking at redesigning the dam into a three mega watt mini-hydro, which will be connected to the main grid.
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Not real, only to scare BN leaders

KUCHING: A political analyst said it would be a grave mistake for Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) to pull out from the Barisan Nasional (BN).

A senior lecturer with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Professor Dr Jeniri Amir said if indeed SUPP pull out of the coalition then it would be a great lost not only to the party but also the Chinese community in Sarawak.

He however believed that it was just SUPP trick to frighten the government and BN leaders.

“It’s not going to be real, I believe, it was just an old trick to scare the BN leaders and the government to achieve their own agenda,” said Dr Jeniri to The Star yesterday.

He said the party leaders should make a rational decision and not making their decision just because they were pressured by the grass root supporters.

“The Chinese in Sarawak should accept that SUPP is still a party representing them in the coalition government.

“When SUPP is outside BN then the party is an opposition party and the Chinese will have no more platform to work with the government of the day to discuss matters affecting the Chinese community in Sarawak,” he said.

Dr Jeniri further said it will a waste for SUPP if indeed the party quit the BN, pointing out that all their hard works and their 40 years struggle together with BN will bring no benefit to the Chinese community.

“What SUPP leaders should do right now is to work hard to strengthen the party and should cooperate closely with the other BN component parties, and at the same time listen to the views of the other component party leaders.

“If SUPP quit BN then the party will be seen as weak and had failed in its struggle,” added Dr Jeniri.

Emphasising that the party leaders be more  realistic, Dr Jeniri stressed that it unfair for SUPP leaders to keep pressuring BN leaders to meet the requests and  demands from their grass root supporters.

“It is not fair at all, there must be win-win situation and not just demanding this and that without considering the interests of other races,” he added.

He said if all the component parties are doing the same things like SUPP then it will only make the situation more complicated.

“SUPP should assess its own weaknesses and not just because being pressured by the grass root and angry that some of their requests are not fulfilled they threaten to guit the coalition.

Dr Jeniri said in last 40 years struggle a lot has been given to SUPP and the Chinese community in Sarawak and that they should be thankful to the government.

“They should just look at themselves in the economic sectors, they are far advance and having benefiting more than the Bumiputera.

“It unfair if the interests of the Bumiputera is being neglected just to fulfill the Chinese interests alone,” he added.

SUPP is facing a serious crisis including leadership crisis and had being accused of failing to address two major issue affecting the Chinese – land and education.

The party lost eight of the 19 seats it contested in the 2006 state general election but performed better in March 2008 parliamentary election, winning six out of the seven seats it contested. It only lost Bandar Kuching to DAP.

However in the recent Sibu by-election, SUPP lost its traditional stronghold to DAP candidate Wong Ho Leng.

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