Dam only if villagers agree

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KOTA KINABALU: The proposed Tambatuon dam in Kota Belud will only be built if the villagers in the locality agree to it, Urban Well-being Housing and Local Government Minister, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan stated unequivocally.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Musa Haji Aman handing over the Al-Aman Foundation contribution to the Gaza Humanitarian Fund to the Palestine Ambassador to Malaysia Dr. Anwar H. Al Agha during the Aidilfitri celebration hosted by Federal Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan at his residence on Wednesday. Looking on are State Legislative Assembly Speaker Datuk Seri Panglima Salleh Tun Said Keruak, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Haji Hajiji Haji Noor and Assistant Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Haji Musbah Jamli. The foundation donated RM 100,000 to the fund.

The Kota Belud member of parliament said that the RM400 million project has been halted because of the villagers’ protest.

Speaking to reporters at his Aidilfitri open house here yesterday, Abdul Rahman said: “I have promised (the people) that the dam will only be built when Tambatuon people agrees to it. As we all know there have been huge objections from the local residents, and therefore, we have to engage them but there is no immediate need to revive the dam project at the moment.

According to him, the project will serve many purposes actually, such as providing irrigation for paddy fields, providing clean (treated) water, and for flood mitigation.

“It will also ensure that residents in the area will have sufficient water supply in times of drought, and for electricity generation in future. All these will help Kota Belud to develop and the project is capable of resolving the district’s perennial water woes for the next 50 to 100 years.

He hoped opposition parties, particularly the DAP, would not instigate the villagers to continue protesting against the project with erroneous claims, but to let the villagers decide themselves based on facts.

Abdul Rahman described the DAP’s action as a case of ‘double standard’, claiming that the Penang state government had, on the other hand, requested for the federal government to build a dam in the state.

“DAP only knows how to talk. It objected to the dam in Kota Belud but asked the federal government to build the Mengkuang 2 dam in Penang, which is much bigger and exorbitant, costing RM1.2 billion.

“(Penang Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng gave the same reasons as Kota Belud, on why the dam should be built in Penang,” he said.

Meanwhile when asked to comment on the call to increase Sabah’s oil royalty to 20 per cent, Abdul Rahman opined that it is time now for the Government, especially politicians from Sabah, to do a roadshow to explain the fundamental issues to the people.

“So much has been said by the opposition which actually is not clarifying the issue but confusing the people even more on the 20 per cent oil royalty, the Malaysia Agreement and other inter-governmental issues like the 20 Points.

“So, I am trying to do a roadshow in two months time at major towns in Sabah to make the people understand that there are two sides to the issue so that they are not being misled by others, especially Datuk Dr. Jeffrey Kitingan.

So we will let Dr. Jeffrey tell his version of the issues but we must present to the people of Sabah our side of the issue and let the people decide after that,” he said.