Citing "People First, Performance Now", the Sabah state government has announced the scrapping of a controversial gigantic water treatment plant in Maang, Kota Kinabalu.

However, the related and even more controversial RM 2.8 billion Kaiduan project will still proceed as planned, but downsized.

"People First, Performance Now" is the catch phrase of the 1Malaysia Administration promised by Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak.

Deputy Chief Minister Joseph Pairin Kitingan had this good news for the Catholic Mission in Penampang which feared that its 20-acre site would be affected by the dam and water treatment plant project.

"The government sympathizes with the people. This serves as a reminder for us to be more thorough in making this proposal which is still at the planning stage," said Pairin in explaining the decision on the two projects but offering no alternatives to the scrapped water treatment plant.

T sarawak energy board slide show hydropower project in sarawak 180608 bakun dam he present water supply system in Kota Kinabalu and outlying regions, it was announced earlier by the state government, would not be able to sustain demand after 2010.

Giving some preliminary details on the revised dam project, Pairin confirmed that its production capacity will be scaled down from 1,600 mld to 1,000 mld.

Political questions hover over project

This, he acknowledged, may still not make the people happy since they want the dam to be shifted to the nearby uninhabited Mondolipau area.

"Mondolipau can only accommodate 500 mld and will cost twice as much as Kaiduan (the original) to build," said Pairin in rejecting the on-going "shift the dam" campaign in Penampang.

"We did consider the proposal of the residents' action committee to relocate the dam to Mondolipau."

Pairin, who is also Huguan Siou (paramount chief) of the KadazanDusunMuruts, pleaded that the state government had no choice but proceed with the smaller dam project but in Kaiduan itself.

The project, according to him, was critical to prevent water shortages in Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Tuaran, Putatan and Papar.

Implied but not stated in so many words was that the state government was unlikely to survive a water shortage situation coming on top of the current power woes that plague the state.

joseph pairin kitingan 010706 young "My ministry will be monitoring the development of the project and ensure that all negative effects will be minimized," Pairin pledged.

"The people should co-operate with the state government like the people in Sarawak."

Compensation awaits affected folk

Pairin ( right ), surprisingly, advised that the people in Kaiduan emulate the example of some 10,000 people in Bakun, Sarawak, affected by the on-going controversial dam project.

"There, the project will be flooding 14, 750 sq km," he pointed out in making comparisons with the relatively smaller Kaiduan dam project.

On the plus side, Pairin said the scaled-down dam now envisaged for Kaiduan would flood a smaller area of 5.2 sq km compared with the 12 sq km required by a bigger dam project.

Also, a smaller number of 250 to 300 people from four kampungs will now be re-located and not the 15 kampungs and about 2,000 people affected by the earlier massive project.

He gave the assurance that the people of the four affected kampungs, when re-located, would be paid compensation.

They would also be provided with titled land, houses and basic amenities such as water supply, roads and electricity.

However, land acquisition would be governed by the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Ordinance 2009. Details on the Bill, currently making its way through the state assembly, remain unclear.

State Minister for Tourism, Culture and Environment Masidi Manjun, meanwhile, even holds out the possibility of the Kaiduan dam being scrapped altogether.

State still waiting for EIA report

This suggests that the state government has some reservations about the project.

It is not possible to build in Mondolipau at the same time to augment Kaiduan, since the former will reportedly cost "twice as much as the original more massive Kaiduan dam project".

"There is no such thing as a final decision about the Kaiduan dam project," stressed Masidi in clarifying Pairin's statement.

"What the state government has done is to give approval in principle. This is still subject to all vital requirements and regulations being complied with to the satisfaction of the state government. The state government did not say ‘build now'. "

Masidi disclosed that the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) on the dam project is yet to be done.

It will only be done, according to him, if the state decides to proceed with the project. It is not known whether that this has now become a big IF.

"I do not know when the EIA will be carried out," confessed Masidi. "They (the consultants) have not come back to us."

The original Kaiduan dam project erupted into controversy in recent days in Sabah.

The main grouse was that the original report on the dam, prepared by the consultants, stated that Kaiduan was an uninhabited area.

This suggests that the consultants may not have visited the dam area at all nor conducted any aerial surveys but merely relied on old maps of the area.

The study on the project was financed by the Asian Development Bank in 1987, according to Pairin's Ministry, Infrastructure Development. Pairin was Chief Minister at that time.

The related Water Supply Resources Master Plan for Sabah, a later study financed by the ADB, was done in 1994 i.e. the year the Pairin Administration fell from power.