Source : The Star, Malaysia, 24 Jan 2005
By : The Star
  

The report said the project would create widespread impact on the entire Bakun region as some 69,640ha of land, or roughly the size of Singapore, would be inundated.

The impact would be most felt on human beings, environment, soil structure, water and air quality, vegetation, wildlife and fisheries.

Several sections of the report touched on the possible risks and impact of the opening up of land and exposure of the local communities to outsiders.

Chapter 6 of the report said “one of the potential adverse impacts that the project would bring about is the creation of habitat for the introduction and transmission of vectors and diseases”.

In another section, it was mentioned that among the 'unavoidable impacts' would be the introduction and spread of sickness and diseases and impacts to cultural and biological resources.

Some mitigating measures proposed in the EIA report were to minimise the risks by making it compulsory to screen all outsiders who come to work in Bakun for illnesses and diseases.

Another recommendation was the compulsory prohibition of liaison between foreign workers with local residents, aside from those in the worksite.

The EIA, however, did not take into account what would happen following the opening of the local native communities to outsiders through intermarriage between different tribes and cross-settlement migration.

The 14 Penans who died from the measles outbreak were from Sungai Urun in interior Belaga, near the Bakun dam.

The semi-nomadic Penans, numbering about 10,000, are mostly found in the northern divisions of Miri and Limbang. Most of them carry out shifting cultivation and hunting as a livelihood.

A small number of them live in Kapit Division, near the site of the Bakun dam.