Local environmental group Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) and several Sarawakian natives met with Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi this afternoon to voice their concerns over the impact of the controversial Bakun dam on their livelihood.

The deputy premier had promised to 'look into the matter' after the one-hour meeting at his office in Putrajaya which saw the handing over of two petitions by locals affected by the giant hydro-electrical project, said SAM council member, Jessica Binwani, who was present.

"The DPM went through the petitions on the spot and said he would talk to the local authorities to see what could be done," she said.

Binwani admitted that she was surprised by the deputy premier's willingness to meet them despite the short notice.

She was among the five SAM council members present at today's meeting, together with seven natives who flew in from Sarawak last Sunday to submit their petitions to the Federal government.

The other council members included SAM's president Mohamed Idris and its honourary secretary Meena Raman.

Natives displaced

Among the issues raised in the petitions were compensation for the natives' farms devastated by the dam's construction, problems they faced in government-run resettlement areas such as overpriced houses, and the denial of compensation to those who refused to move to the resettlement areas.

First proposed by the government in mid-eighties, the Bakun dam was designed to be a 205-meter-high and 2,400-megawatt power station which will necessitate a catchment area of 1.5 million hectares of primary forest and flooding an area the size of Singapore.

The government has claimed that the dam will spin off job opportunities and tourism in the state but environmentalists have condemned the project for its effects on the environment and the displacement of some 10,000 indigenous people from their homes.

The mammoth project was stalled in 1997 following the regional financial crisis before it was revived early this year.

Binwani said the seven residents who were representing their longhouse community came forward to voice their problems after they were repeatedly ignored by the local authorities.

"They came to tell about how they are suffering because they had made a lot of complaints before this but nobody listened to them," she said.

"Their problems need immediate action and should not delayed any further," she added.

She said Abdullah agreed that the 'development in the interior area tends to cost more' when the residents complained about the unreasonably expensive houses they were sold and said he will 'give his best' to help them.

Suhakam to visit

Earlier this morning, a similar meeting between SAM and the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) was held, where the latter had promised a visit the resettlement areas where most of the affected locals have been relocated to.

According to Binwani, Suhakam commissioners Anuar Zainal Abidin and Dr Mohammad Hirman Ritom Abdullah had recorded the complaints of the seven residents and said they would visit the area in three weeks' time.

The seven Sarawakians will speak at a public forum on the impact of the Bakun dam project on natives tomorrow night at Universiti Malaya.