Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing
KUCHING: Roads to rural areas will eventually be built, but a hydroelectric power (HEP) dam will hasten the construction of these roads.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing, in getting his point across, emphasised that budget constraints were one of the main factors as why roads construction to rural areas were slower.
“The rough terrain in these areas make such construction costly.
“Hence we must make it worthwhile for the government to build major highways to rural areas of Sarawak, and one of the enticement is HEP (dam),” he stated.
HEP dam is the ‘game changer’ to rural economy, he said, while reiterating the social and economic impacts the project will create.
Masing was responding to the many quarters who did not agree that high impact projects were key drivers for basic infrastructure.
In an earlier news reported by The Borneo Post, he urged people of Baram to rethink the role and implications of mega project such as the HEP dam has on the local community.
Pointing towards the road construction that came piggybacked with the Baleh Dam as an example of a delivered project, he explained that the dam will finance the infrastructure including providing electricity to industries and ordinary households.
Following the news, there have been negative comments on social media, with most people feeling that it was unfair for rural folk to have waited so long to have basic infrastructure, particularly roads as well as electricity and water supplies.