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Dompok:
Build the dam elsewhere
02 November 2009,
( Source: Daily Express)
PENAMPANG : The
consultant for the proposed RM2.8 billion dam in
Kaiduan, Papar, should look for another site
since the villagers are not in favour of it
being built in their midst.
Upko President-cum-Penampang
MP, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok, said as for the
Water Treatment Plant (WTP) at Kampung Maang, if
the reason is for easy distribution of water
from a height, there are other hills in
Penampang.
To this end, he also hoped
SMHB Sdn Bhd would brief him on the requirement
of the project. The consultant had said only
four villages would be affected and not 11 as
speculated.
Dompok reiterating a statement
by former Moyog Assemblyman Datuk Philip
Lasimbang, said elected representatives in the
district were never informed of the project.
Dompok said by right all
district leaders should be informed of any
projects, programmes or government plans in
their areas.
As for the four-eyed meeting
between the consultant engineer, Penampang
District Office and villagers last Friday, he
said the consultant must also talk to the
villagers for their views.
"I was unable to attend the
briefing (last Friday) because I was attending a
Cabinet meeting (in Kuala Lumpur)," he said
after launching the Upko Penampang Division at
Dewan Tun Fuad Stephens.
Lasimbang had said the project
was planned quietly without the knowledge of the
elected representatives. "Even the community
leaders also have never been consulted," he had
said.
Lasimbang said this problem
occurred because of certain people whose view of
development is narrowed to the construction of
only concrete buildings. Hence, they disregarded
the people's feelings.
Penampang, he said, has been
beset with one problem after another such as the
relocation of squatters from Sri Tanjung to
Kampung Maang, construction of sewerage in the
middle of the Penampang gazetted paddy fields,
Penampang and Putatan re-delineation and the
latest, Kaiduan dam and Maang WTP.
"All these were carried out
quietly without the consideration of the elected
representatives and community leaders' views,"
he said.
Such act is very suspicious,
he said, because it is like thieves stealing the
people rights.
Lasimbang said he supported
the people's decision to reject the dam and
water treatment plant and have them constructed
elsewhere.
He noted the consultant's
claim that proposed project is still at its
conceptual stage. "However, it is very strange
that a contractor has already been appointed to
build the dam and water treatment plant."
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