SABAH Bersatu members should back the state government on the Papar dam, just as how they had supported the project when they were in Umno, said the chief minister.

Mohd Shafie Apdal said Penampang Bersatu chief John Ambrose, who is opposed to the dam, used to head the district Umno, and the former ruling party was the one that mooted the project when Barisan Nasional ran the state administration.

“I thought they were the ones who wanted it?” Shafie told reporters when asked about opposition to the dam, at the state Land and Survey Department’s Raya open house in Kota Kinabalu today.

The Papar dam was referred to as the “Kaiduan dam” when BN held Sabah. The project is to ensure continuous water supply to west coast districts, which are expected to face shortages in 2024.

Shafie’s Parti Warisan Sabah, as well as state Pakatan Harapan leaders, had used the Kaiduan dam as campaign fodder during the 14th general election last year, promising to scrap the project should they manage to topple BN.

After the polls, the Warisan state government said it had cancelled the Kaiduan dam and proposed the Papar dam instead, to be built on Sg Papar.

Activists have said the site of the Papar dam – a secluded area near Kg Mondoringin in Papar – is the same as that of the Kaidun dam.

The RM3 billion project is expected to supply one billion litres of water daily and generate 100kW of hydroelectricity. – July 9, 2019.