Published on: Thursday, July 29, 2010 |
Kota Kinabalu: Consultants and project proponents for the proposed coal fired power plant have classified indigenous Sabah groups such as the Orang Sungai and Tidong as being of Indonesian origin.
"These are misrepresentations because they are referring to the Orang Sungai and Tidong as being Indonesian which goes to show how faulty this so-called Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (DEIA) is," said Lanash Thanda of WWF-Malaysia.
According to Lanash, who attended the closed door DEIA Panel meeting, this was one of many mistakes in the DEIA for the proposed coal-fired plant, which has been proposed to be built in the East Coast of Sabah.
"To add insult to injury, the DEIA consultants and project proponents were clearly heard laughing when the State Government asked intelligent and valid questions," said Lanash, who is a policy analyst.
The State Government was represented by senior officials who placed community and environmental interest at the forefront of their questions due to mass public concerns.
"The consultants disrespected our State officials by deflecting important questions replying that it was out of the scope of their studies.
How can questions with regards to green technology and local fisheries as well as aquaculture security be outside the scope of their study?"
The DEIA also erroneously classified the seabed as a habitat largely devoid of sea life when in fact the area comprises a wide range of marine eco-system.
"The baseline data collections were not technically appropriate for the seabed types found at this site - the report compares sand and mud flats with coral reefs," said Will Unsworth, an environment analyst.
Wildlife conservationist, Dr Marc Ancrenaz who along with Unsworth were also present at the DEIA Panel meeting, was shocked to find that the consultants had also identified species not present in Borneo in their report.
"The dusky langur monkey (Semnopithecus obscurus) is found in Peninsular Malaysia and mainland Asia and not in Borneo," said Ancrenaz.
This is a scientifically inadequate representation of the area, on this basis alone the DEIA should be rejected by the Department of Environment, Lanash pointed out.
