MOST days, when villagers at the Sg Asap resettlement village in Sarawak turn on their taps, brown sludge sputters out, serving as just another daily reminder of the life they were forced to give up to make way for the Bakun hydroelectric dam almost 20 years ago.

Some 10,000 villagers, made up of the Orang Ulus of the Kayan, Kenyah, Lahanan, Ukit and Penan groups, have been living in 15 longhouses at Sg Asap since they were displaced from their homes in 1998.

The villagers were among the tens of thousands who were forced to move out of their homes to make way for the state’s first, and highly controversial, hydroelectric dam, located 62km away in Belaga.

The lack of clean, running water – a basic human need – has plagued the Sg Asap folk since they moved in 19 years ago.

Some days, the water runs clear with just a tinge of yellow, while on other days, the mud-like liquid that comes out of the taps is almost unsafe for consumption, said an Uma (longhouse) Daro resident.

“We have sacrificed everything just to give way to the (Bakun dam) project, yet the government of the day is neglecting us,” he said.

“Do we deserve that kind of treatment? Why is the BN (Barisan Nasional) government blind and can’t see our problem?”

Alexander Lehan of Uma Nyaving told The Malaysian Insight that the village get their water supply from the nearby Sg Koyan, which is badly affected during the dry season.

He said a basic filtration system, which was built recently, is ineffective.

Lehan said the Public Works Department (PWD), which is responsible for the maintenance of pipes and filters, would “just bypass the filtration system and we will get dirty water”.

“Sg Koyan is muddy regardless whether its dry or rainy season,” he said, adding that oil palm plantations and timber activities in the area exacerbated the problem.

First-term assemblyman Kennedy Chukpai Ugon disclosed recently that the government would be upgrading the water treatment plant to service the community.

However, his promises have failed to pacify the angry villagers.

“Why is it taking them 19 years to build a small water treatment plant, when it took them less time to build the mammoth Bakun dam?” asked another settler from Uma Daro.

He said a proper treatment plant should have been built and been in operation even before the people were moved to the area.

“This is again another example of the government’s failure to plan and implement a major project.

“It also clearly showed that the government does not care and value the support of the people of Sg Asap towards it in all the elections since 1998,” he said.

The Bakun dam, the second tallest concrete-faced rockfill dam in the world, generates 2,400 megawatts (Mw) of electricity and has been plagued by controversy from the time it was first announced by the federal government. – April 20, 2017.