PENAMPANG: The Sabah government must find alternatives to the proposed Penampang dam here, said Kapayan state assemblyman Jannie Lasimbang.
"The Gabungan Rakyat Sabah state government should form an independent committee of experts to study viable alternatives to the Kaiduan dam (which has been renamed "Penampang" dam).
"Large dams disrupt the flow of rivers causing imbalance to the natural hydrological and ecological systems which has a long-term effect, both upstream and downstream.
"They should not rely only on experts from companies that have interests in the dam construction or on experts from government agencies, or the ministries that have already put a lot of effort into securing funding for the project," she said in a statement.
The state government had said the proposed dam is to replace the controversial dam project in Papar, which was mooted during the previous Parti Warisan Sabah-led administration.
At the same time, Jannie highlighted reports on the community's efforts to manage the Ulu Papar area.
Among them are the establishment of a biocultural community protocol and the strengthening of the "adat" or customary concepts to conserve the forest.
"The communities have also revitalised their 'tagal system' (traditional conservation effort) to look after the river and its riparian reserves as they are dependent on the river for their food supply and their micro-hydro systems. Experts agree that the Papar River catchment is one of the best in Sabah.
"Sabah Parks, with the support of communities and non-governmental organisations, also successfully managed to get Unesco to declare the forests within the Crocker Range Park as a Biosphere Reserve in 2014 and has been promoting the Salt Trail as a tourism adventure destination."
On allegations that local communities' activities had caused water pollution due to massive land clearing, Jannie said it could be due to private companies' move to set up oil palm plantations.