Save Sabah!

LAHAD DATU: Fishermen who will have to move if a 300 megawatt coal-fired power plant is built in the seaside village of Kampung Sinakut are worried about their future.

This was revealed to several Green Surf and Save Sandakan members who visited the village, about a hundred kilometers from here, at the edge of Felda Sahabat.

Ali Hia, 46, said he attended a meeting at the nearby Felda Sahabat resort and was told by several officials that villagers will have to vacate the place they have called home for decades.

"Someone mentioned that maybe we have to move to Sungai Merah, which is quite far from our village. We are also worried because Sungai Merah is not next to the sea like Sinakut is.

"We are not sure about compensation. There was no proper answer when we asked them. Most of us do not want the plant but we are helpless. We just believe what our village leader tells us," Ali, who has three children, said.

He said he was not sure who the officials were but assumed that they must be from Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) or representatives of the company that will build the plant.

Ali Admitted that he did not know that there were health hazards associated to coal, or the impact it would have on his livelihood when the area at sea he depends on to catch fish becomes warmer from plant discharge.

"No one ever told us that coal will have an impact on our health and resources," he said.

Another villager Mohd Jainal Musa, 51, said he does not want to move from Sinakut, and like Ali, is not sure what will happen if the plant is built.

"Our lives have always been hard, and we cannot even repair our homes because Felda has cut all the trees… we have no wood to improve the condition of our houses.

"I wonder what will happen next, or if these promises of compensation will be met because no one seems to be sure," Mohd Jainal who has seven children said.

Mohd Jainal and Ali both said they were promised jobs in the construction period, but that all they will be able to do is hard labour as they are uneducated.

"Maybe we will be asked to carry cement bags. Once the plant is built, there will be nothing for us. All we know is how to fish, and we would like it to remain that way." they said.

Former Sabah State Legislative Assembly Speaker, Datuk Hassan Alban Sandukong who was against the second proposed site in Sandakan, explained to village elders in Sinakut and a nearby settlement about the project.

Hassan said although he is with Umno, it is his duty to speak up in the interest of the people.

"We are here to help you understand the real issue. Coal plants are dangerous to health due to gases they emit, and fish in the sea will be poisoned.

"I know that some of you were told that fish are thriving in places like Manjung, but toxins are collected in the fish and over time, it won’t be safe for you. At least think of your children and grand children," Hassan said.

He said villagers must think hard, because once the project starts, it will be too late to regret the decisions that they make now.

Sabah Environment, Protection Association (Sepa) president Wong Tack said villagers at the fringes of Felda Sahabat do not even have proper roads, clinics or other basic amenities.

"This is a serious violation of human rights. Felda has made multi millions in profit from this area in more than 20 years and they have not helped these fishermen," he said.

Daily Express 14th June 2010 .

Popularity: 4% [?]

By : Kan Yaw Chong

The new President of WWF International is Ecuador’s former Minister of Environment 1998-2000, YOLANDA KAKABADSE, who visited Sabah mid May to attend the top-notch NGO’s Annual Conference 2010, at the Star.

In 2005, Yolanda was recognised with the Lindbergh Award for her lengthy record of co-ordinating the efforts of international environmental agencies for resolving conflicts between industry and environmental concerns throughout Latin America and the world, especially in sustainable development relating to energy, trade and forest management. Yolanda co-founded the Foundation Natura in Ecuador, rated as one of the world’s most effective environmental NGOs.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Express, the moral leadership of Yolanda as a critic of "wealth without values" became evident as she answered questions. She speaks and writes books on the ‘role of ethics’ in globalisation especially how to find ways of giving higher priority to "being" instead of "having", ie. give more emphasis on values and check the prosperity craze that is driving consumption to dizzying height.

During the Earth Dialogue 2002 in Lyon, France, she was reported as saying: " We have prioritised ‘having’ over ‘being’.

We practise remediation rather than prevention. Science and technology are developing weapons of destruction instead of instrument for creation."

Here she talks to Special Writer KAN YAW CHONG.

DE: So how should we protect this Semporna /Darvel Bay clearly marked out in red blobs by WWF as a Priority Conservation Area which WWF has clearly marked out, against heavy coastal industries?

Dr Sharma: So from broad understanding to specific commitments, as I said, resourcing the actions that are the ones that the governments have articulated and had made the commitments to themselves – how to ensure they keep themselves in tune with their own commitments, how to ensure that they periodically meet and exchange the progress that they are taking to work together but also equally important is the part where we exercise our own mandates. If we are doing something that is land-based that brings impacts on the marine environment, I would expect governments of the joint declaration to address the problem. It is really the shared parts of the joint declaration that we have to work together but there must be a lot of things that must step up to the pledge and be accountable for the things that impact.

So, as you can imagine, if agriculture and the effluence that feeds into the rivers and flow out into the sea and brings that detrimental effect, that’s ours to tackle. We would not have to wait for the joint declaration.

We have to tackle it ourselves because we see the immediate effects.

We owe it ourselves.

DE: So one big problem and worry about Darvel Bay is the proposed coal-fired plant in Sinakut and the prospect of non-stop waste water discharge into this bay. Is WWF doing anything to advice the Government against it?

Dr Sharma: Coal-fired plants are very damaging to the environment.

Even if you put aside the various grades of coal that can be used, what it spews out and all the impact that it has in increasing temperature from the cooling process. So WWF has been in public domain already because we actually have a coalition against the coal-fired power plant but that coalition against the coal-fired plant came up-front to try to tell the Government. We should invest more in understanding the future scenario of energy needs, understanding the mix that we can have if we start to think and invest with a full street of producing the energy we need , going to renewables obviously, but also understanding that we can only come to that kind of arrangement if we start from the onset of understanding the end game. If we start with the end in mind, and that end is really for a healthy environment, then we need to know and be accountable for all the decisions we make now and the actions we take now. If we don’t start something with the end in mind and start to do things that are detrimental to yourself in the long haul, that is not good decision making, I am afraid.

So, it’s always about starting, and being responsible for the future.

Kakabadse: I want to comment on this. I think in general, we in the world of conservation have not been marketing our message in the right way because we have always been talking about future generations.

There is a fantastic study that I advise conservationists to look into in the web that is now completed and about to be published by UNEP and it’s a project called Teeb (The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity).

In this project is a compilation of data that managing ecosystems well is good business today.

It’s not good business five generations from now, not even for our children in 30 years.

We should be talking about today’s benefits of doing good business. In conservation, managing water, forests, soil and everything around us well, it’s good business this year.

In that document is producing several products for decision makers of the economic sector in government, for business people, for media and for the public and it will tell us and guide us and give us information why you shouldn’t wait. You can do those investments this way. That’s important, delivering the message in a different way because I think the sceptics are criticising us. You are looking into the ideal world. No, no, no, we are concerned with the present world. That’s real to us.

DE: What might be the impacts on the Coral Triangle if coal-fired plant is up with non-stop discharge of massive waste water into Darvel Bay over decades?

Dr Sharma: The Coral Triangle is a large seascape but we, the six governments which have committed to the security of the Coral Triangle need to hold themselves accountable to each other for their joint commitment. But the various countries go out and take things on a national scale and do things on their own and every country that starts to impact on the same space they had made a commitment for security. That is not going to be a long term model. That may have then been a commitment made without understanding what they have committed to. So, you would find that you have sovereign rights in decision making and go ahead and decide on plants like coal-fired power plant or all kinds of coastal development projects that bring detrimental impacts on the coastal environment.

Every decision made in that irresponsible manner then collectively will have that impact on the commitment and that becomes a contradiction that the right hand is inconsistent with the left hand.

So that is not the model of accountability to each other. As a national organisation, our job is to keep them reminded of the joint commitment, ensuring that the governments constantly come and meet and talk about the joint commitment, keep looking that common plan of action and then escalate their understanding that even national decisions add impacts across that joint space.

So we have to constantly remind them about policy intervention, environmental awareness and education and propose solutions.

Sometimes it is easy to criticise but it is more difficult to find alternate solutions. We have to be leaders in ensuring people that as a science-based organisation, that there are options and let’s start to explore those options because those options invariably don’t compromise our people and development aspirations. We must be pertinent to the government, to the people and the constituencies.

Read more …….http://www.dailyexpress.com.my:80/read.cfm?NewsID=375

Popularity: 11% [?]

‘SOME people asked me what I am afraid of about a coal-fired power plant. I say it’s not about me, it’s about Sabah. If there is no fish any more coming out of our seas because of pollution and non-stop dumping of toxic waste water into the sea, how will people face the escalating costs of basic traditional sources of proteins.

“Public health will deteriorate with more degenerative deseases. People even complain about a 20 sen increase in sugar price. But what if basung price goes up to RM10 per kilo because there is no more basung at sea? Even now, without a coal-fired plant doing the pollution, fish landing is going down every year. If it drops further, it becomes a big problem.

“Every body knows if you burn coal, ash comes out. What does that ash contain ? Everyone knows. Where does it go ? Disappear ? No it pollutes. You can say no smoke but they have a way of scrubbing sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide with sea water which will run back to the Darvel Bay carrying nitric acid and salphate and some coal ash,” Lo said.

“Do people who know these facts tell the facts to every body ?”

“People need to know because the issue here is very simple. Plankton will diminish and die especially if we put in a long term industrial polluter that keeps up with non-stop discharge of millions of litres of toxic waste waters into the sea everyday. If the planktons disappear, where are you going to get natural feeds for the larvae of countless marine organisms ? I have to stress over and over again that planktons are very important because no plankton, no small fish, no big fish,no prawns, no ocean marine life because freshly born fish larvae eat plankton tinier and softer than themselves. They are like us. The moment we are born, we can only drink milk. We cannot immediately eat porridge, much less rice,” Lo said.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Kan Yaw Chong

He objected furiously to the coal-fired plant Silam a few years back.

Now, Datuk Lo Fui Ming, a leading aquaculture investor

In Darvel Bay, continues to object to a coal-fired plant at proposed Sinakut,

10 to 15 km away from his scenic Silam Aquaculture farm.

Lo was hopping mad over the proposed Silam site because it meant the large non-stop discharges of hot chlorinated cooling sea water, salphate,coal ash and nitric acid would be flushed directly into his multi-million Riggit fish farm, since his farm is only just half to one kilometer from the proposed site.

“Sure ruins, no question about that,” Lo said.

“Even if the fish don’t die, people won’t eat them for fear of toxic heavy metal contamination like mercury,” he added. But the latest proposed site at Sinakut is about 10-15 km away. Why does it bother him still ? “ Because it is also the place which produces the most fish in the whole of Malaysia,” Lo pointed out.

“The Basung all come from there. This is also one of just two of three places which produces one of Sabah’s best variety of lobsters which now sells at RM200 per kilo in KK ! If you kill them off, there no more lobsters in Sabah. What will the tourists come to Sabah for ? To see your towns and tall buildings or even nature but nothing very delicious to eat ?”

“If places like Tambisan and Tunku are polluted later with toxic industrial wastes, there will be no small fish. If there are no small fish, there’ll be no big fish, no prawns, no lobsters,no crabs and no corals because corals are most sensitive to changes in the environment.

“If your water chemistry just changes a little bit r the temperature rises a little, the first to die will be the corals. Once the corals are dead, the fish run away, as simple as that and the place is packed with coral,” Lo spoke him mind.

Because he works with fish every day, no one objects more sharply to the spectre of a coalfired plant constantly spilling ash particulate into the air and dumping polluted waste water into Darvel Bay.

Daily Express , Sunday 24th Jan 2010 .

Popularity: 12% [?]

Department of Environment director-general Datuk Rosnani Ibarahim:

"WE must endeavour not to cause severe pollution and degradation to the environment in all our daily activities and undertakings.
"There are already in place rules, standards and guidelines for controlling pollution, hence it is our obligation to comply at all times.

"For environmental conservation programmes to succeed, the government and its agencies, like DOE, require the full participation and understanding of all.

"Most importantly, we need to disseminate to the public that the resources we have are limited. We must also understand that the damage we inflict to the environment will cause the destruction of our biodiversity.
"The diversity of the Earth’s species is what supports the ecosystem of the planet."

Children’s Environmental Heritage Foundation founder Khadijah Abdul Rahman:
"IN Malaysia, due to the fast pace of development, we’ve forgotten about the rich biodiversity in our pristine forests. We have not given serious consideration to the welfare of our environment and this will have consequence on our future.
"The theme ‘Many Species. One Planet. One Future.’ reminds us that we only have one home. When we say ‘planet’, we think about the stars in the sky, of alien beings living some where out there. We forget that we live on a planet which is our home.

"There are many people who work in conserving or creating awareness about the environment. I hope more people will get involved in this on their own accord, not because it is their job.
"On World Environment Day, take your family out and experience and appreciate what Mother Nature has given us.

2010/06/04

Read more: Full participation needed http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/12afa/Article/#ixzz0pz05U7dX

Popularity: 4% [?]