Unaceptable, says Sepa

Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) has asked the State Forestry Department, Sabah Parks and other concerned parties what could be so secret going on at the Tawau Geothermal Power Plant site in Tawau Hill Park that even a stakeholder is prevented from entering the area.Its President, Wong Tack said he was dissatisfied with the excuse given by State Forestry Director Datuk Sam Mannan that development at that side of the park is actively ongoing and not a designated area for tourists or visitors due to safety concerns.

"All we asked the developer to do was to be open to the people of SabahÉDatuk Sam, please don't twist and turn," he told a press conference at State Assembly building, Monday.

Wong, accompanied by Himpunan Hijau 2.0 Chairman and Bersih 2.0 Vice Chairman (Southern) Thomas Fann, were there to listen to a clarification on the matter which Mannan had promised to give, as reported in the media.

Wong said Mannan may not realise that during the question and answer session at the stakeholder forum held in 2011, at the Kimanis ballroom, a member of the floor asked whether development of the geothermal plant would mean cutting up a Class 1 forest of the 27,972 hectares Tawau Hill Park.

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"To which a Tawau Green Energy (TGE - project developer) executive confidently answered 'no' and went on to assure that the project will involve utilisation of only degraded forests under the Forestry Department," he said.

Wong said because of that assurance, Sepa went on record to say they supported the project, to loud applause from the TGE staff.

"But starting last year Sepa received emotional and angry complaints from callers, including a former State Department Director about huge tracks of forests being felledÉthe visible evidence of that were the truck loads of logs coming out of the area at night," he said.

"To us, this was a breach of promise, a breach of trust, made in front of almost 200 people at the forum, including a dozen journalistsÉsince the complaints escalatedÉwe decided to do a field check," said Wong.

"Otherwise, the public would accuse us not doing our job as trusted protestors of the environment."

"Mannan cannot blame us for not informing him about our intention.

We emailed him, to which he asked us to contact the land owners - Sabah Parks, which we did but Sabah Parks said the entrance gate is under Forestry and so we went back to Mannan for permission but we got no reply," he said.

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So, unable to wait we decided to act last Thursday and at the Forestry entry gate, a TGE manager told us he was under instruction from the Forestry Director not to let us in. "Barred entry, we remain in the dark as to what is happening inside the Tawau Hill Park area where TGE is active in logging 150ha of pristine forest," he charged.

Yet, he said, this catchment is the only natural water tower which supplies water to the entire areas around Tawau and "as Mannan had confirmed TGE had already felled 1,639 logs - old trees which are the natural water pumps from the water table deep down the hilly volcanic landscape."

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