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Malaysian undersea cable plan `unsafe,' says group

Malaysian environmentalists yesterday slammed a billion-dollar undersea cable project, saying it is unsafe because of earthquakes in the region.

Friends of the Earth Malaysia said tectonic plate movements in the past two years around Asia had engendered a spate of earthquakes and called for plans linking the Bakun hydro-electric dam on Borneo island to the mainland to be dropped.

The group's honorary secretary, Meena Raman, cited last month's earthquake off Taiwan that damaged undersea cables and disrupted communication across Asia as an example of the possible dangers.

The Taiwan quake "shows that we are dealing with an ecosystem that has changed since the undersea cables were first mooted years ago," Raman said.

"There is fundamentally a need to reassess the viability and also the safety of these undersea cables," she said.

The US$2.5 billion cable project was dropped after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, but Malaysian energy minister Lim Keng Yaik last week said it was now back on course to be completed by 2012.

Raman said the group was calling for a new Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) to be done after the years of delays.

"There ought to be a new EIA done because of the changed circumstances. The government cannot rely on the old EIA which was approved years ago," she said.

Under the project, about 700km of transmission lines and 670km of undersea cables will have to be installed.

Friends of the Earth said the cables would weigh 60kg per meter, giving a total weight of at least 40,200 tonnes per cable.

"Common sense tells us, given the massive structure, one cannot ignore the impacts such a structure would have," said Raman.

The government is trying to generate cheaper hydroelectricity to diversify Malaysia's energy mix from a dependence on natural gas and fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

The Bakun dam has attracted fierce criticism because of its harmful impact on the environment and the fact that 10,000 residents have had to evacuate the site.
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