THE small Kenyah settlement at Tanjung Tepalit was destined to be “buried” under tons of water of the now shelved Baram hydroelectric dam.

The inhabitants would have been among the 20,000 tribes people that would have been displaced by the dam that would have submerged 400 sq km of land if it had gone ahead.

If the 1,200megawatt dam, shelved in 2015 by former chief minister Adenan Satem had threatened the lives of the people of Tanjung Tepalit, another hydroelectric system, albeit a micro one, is breathing new life to the village.

A coalition of non-governmental organisations that does not believe in non-environmental friendly and unsustainable dams had in February completed a hybrid hydroelectric project that generates 5Kw of electricity.

Spearheading this campaign for small hydroelectric projects for off grid villages in Baram is Peter Kallang, chairman of the Sarawak-based Save Rivers – the same group that led the campaign against the Baram dam.

“This was our first project and it’s a success even though the 5Kw of power was small and limited,” Kallang said of the Tanjung Tepalit project.

The success has spurred Save Rivers and its partner, Sabah-based Tonibung and Green Environment, to build a bigger hydroelectric generator in Long Liam.

This Kayan village of almost similar size to Tanjung Tepalit will have a hydro generator that could generate 11kw of electricity.

Work on the project started on November 14 and could be ready by July.

Kallang approached Tonibung, the acronym of Tobpinai Ningkokoton Kobuburuon Kampung or Friends of Village Development, because of its expertise in bringing cost-effective resource management solutions to under-served rural indigenous communities in Sabah.

Founded in 1991, Tonibung, started training relocated indigenous peoples struggling to adapt to unfamiliar agricultural circumstances but in the last decade turned its attention towards rural electrification, focusing predominantly on micro-hydroelectric systems.

Kallang brought Tonibung’s Aidan Lasimbang to Baram last year to do a study if the micro-hydroelectric systems it had successfully done in Sabah could be replicated in Baram.

Tonibung undertook to design, procurement the parts, did the installation and conducted the test and commissioning of the Tanjung Papalit micro-hydroelectric system.

Tonibung also conducted training for the villagers as part of its effort to empower rural indigenous technicians, enabling them to do the maintenance of the system on their own.

“In the next three to four years, we hope five villages have the micro-hydro system, Kallang said.

One of villages they had proposed is Penan village in the Baram Peace Park where they plan to install a micro hydro system that could generate between 5Kw to 40Kw of power.

Kallang, a former electrical engineer with Sarawak Shell Bhd before he turned environmental activist, said the lowly target averaging about a village a year was due to difficulties in getting funds.

A system that could generate 15kw of electricity could cost anything between RM150,000 to RM170,000.

“Hardly any donors from Malaysia, not even from the government,” he said.

Still the setback is not stopping Kallang and his partners of finding a better solution to their quest to light up rural Sarawak.

One solution is to create a mini grid to connect the villages.

He gave the micro hydro system built in Long Lawen, Belaga for the Kenyah Badeng who resisted the government’s Bakun resettlement scheme in Sungai Asap.

The community-managed micro-hydro project they started building in 1998 and started operation in 2002 is still running today “without major disruption”. – December 2, 2017.