SAVE Rivers

(KUCHING, MALAYSIA). Sarawak Chief Minister Taib Mahmud is facing massive criticism after Rio Tinto Alcan’s decision to scrap its planned US$2 billion investment in an aluminium smelter in the East Malaysian state in Borneo. While environmental campaigners hailed the decision by the Australian mining giant as a breakthrough in their attempts to halt twelve planned hydro-dams in Sarawak, they also accused the long-term governor of the state, Taib Mahmud ("Taib"), of being greedy, highly corrupt and economically incompetent. "With its rich biodiversity and its wealth in natural resources, Sarawak could have become a model state for sustainable development. Instead , Taib has turned Sarawak into a private gold mine for his voracious clan.", a spokesperson for the Swiss Bruno Manser Fund said. Research by the Bruno Manser Fund has shown that the Taib family have acquired stakes in over 400 companies, worth billions of US dollars, in 25 countries and offshore finance cen...

Posted Tuesday, March 27th, 2012 This post is also available in: Malay Only two out of the eight turbines are working, there is no use for the electricity - and yet Taib and Hydro Tasmania are working flat out to build a string more of these destructive dams across all the rivers of Sarawak The question marks over Taib’s pet mega-project, the billion dollar Bakun Dam, have just multiplied into a full-blown crisis for the so-called ‘CEO of Sarawak’. The global mining company, Rio Tinto Alcan, has just announced that it is pulling out of the much-touted aluminium smelter venture, SALCO. This was the flagship project, that was supposed to form the backbone of Taib’s plans to employ the huge surge of hydro-electricity from this enormous structure. And it leaves the whole fantasy of the Chief Minister’s SCORE (Sarawak Corridor of Energy) concept and his plans to build yet 12 more huge dams hanging in tatters. Bakun is fast turning into the monstrous white elephant that ma...

March 28, 2012 Malaysian Insider Rio Tinto, the world’s third largest miner, and Cahya Mata Sarawak have scrapped plans for a US$2 billion (RM6.1 billion) aluminium smelter project in Sarawak as power supply terms could not be finalised, CMS said in today. Cahya Mata, a financial and construction conglomerate based in Sarawak, said both companies had worked to set up an aluminium smelter for years but could not agree on the commercial power supply terms with Sarawak Energy Berhad. CMS is owned by the family of long-serving chief minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud. “As a result, Rio Tinto Aluminium (Malaysia) and Cahya Mata have agreed that they would cease to pursue plans to jointly develop an aluminium smelter at Samalaju in Sarawak but remain open to other future possible collaborations,” Cahya Mata Group Managing Director Richard Curtis said in a statement. The aluminium smelter was supposed to have an annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes to meet surging demand from China and ot...

22nd March 2012: MIRI - The Baram folks living in Miri had a meeting at a local hotel last night to discuss on the issues relating to the government’s proposal to build at least two mega dams in the Baram district. There were about seventy people at the meeting which was organized by the SAVE Rivers Network, an organization comprising of none government organizations and concerned individuals. After hours of discussion the meeting came up with a jointly signed letter address to the CEO of Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), Mr. Thorstien Dale Sjotveit, the meeting wants the SEB to stop all works which are related to the construction of the dams. Instead, they request the government to develop alternative methods of power generation which are people and environment friendly. Copies of the letter were sent to the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, to the Sarawak Chief Minsiter, Pehin Seri Haji Abdul Taib Mahmud, the Chairman of SUHAKAM, the Member of Parl...

BRUNO MANSER FUND, BASEL, SWITZERLAND 22nd March 2012 – for immediate release Torstein Dale Sjotveit, CEO of Malaysian power supplier Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), in breach of international transparency standards over Sarawak dam plans  (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) Torstein Dale Sjotveit, the Norwegian CEO of Sarawak Energy Bhd (SEB), a state-owned Malaysian power supplier, has come under fire for systematically withholding information on the implementation of twelve planned dams in the East Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. Despite demands from local communities and opposition politicians for full transparency over the Sarawak dam plans, Sarawak Energy is deliberately and systematically pushing forward its dam plans under a cloud of secrecy. According to official plans, the twelve dams are to be completed by 2020 despite growing criticism over a power glut caused by the recent completion of the 2400 MW Bakun dam, Asia’s largest hydropower project outside China. Native communities...