Sarawak Report has obtained shocking evidence of rampant and apparently unlicensed dredging of key highland tributaries of the Lawas river, which has recently experienced record floods affecting thousands of residents living downstream.

Sources from the region around Long Semandoh, where much of the extraction is taking place, say there up upwards of a dozen such open sites along accessible points of the high gradient river network inland, where heavy machinery has been brazenly deployed to extract hundreds of thousands of tons of hard rock.

See the scale of the operations on this on-site video

Sarawak-Sabah Link Road

Experts have confirmed that the dredging of such delicate eco-systems is generally strictly prohibited. The hard rock that forms the base of upstream riverbeds is a vital component in the stability of these waterways which have evolved over millennia.

Crucially, it is a natural barrier that breaks the speed of the river as it moves downhill, particularly during heavy rainfall, thereby preserving the integrity of the landscape and providing a protection against extreme flooding downriver.

However, despite this official ban that would apply to any Environmental Impact Assessment for a project in Borneo’s sensitive highland regions, say scientific sources, it emerges that the purpose for this massive and reckless destruction is none other than a key government project, namely the Sarawak-Sabah Link Road awarded by the Sarawak State Government in 2021 as part of the ’11th Malaysia Plan’.

Industry observers have questioned to this website how a government backed plan has become engaged in such careless and apparently unauthorised destruction?

More Crony Contracts?

Once again a company that bestrides Sarawak’s entire economy with its vast concessions and  longterm political connections is caught up in this affair.  Samling, the timber cum plantation cum industrial family conglomerate, was offered the RM1.2 billion contract to built the first 77km stage of the highway from Lawas to Long Lopeng junction by Sarawak’s Public Works Department back in September 2021, according to announcements at the time.

This was not an openly tendered project, as common good practice would require, but yet another questionable behind the scenes fix-up – a so-called ‘negotiated contract’ redolent of the classic days under the former governor Taib Mahmud who handed vast contracts and concessions to crony companies of which Samling was one.

Within a couple of months Samling had sub-contracted the entire construction to the Johor based Kimlun Corporation for RM780 million, the differential apparently being accounted for by various unspecified duties Samling claim to have performed for the over RM400 million margin of public money.

Recent users of the road say that the Phase 1 segment of the road remains less than a third completed with evidence of several road and drainage failures that have held back construction.  The problems owe to the high and unstable ground and a lack of solid available rock base in an area of soft soil.

This has been the incentive behind the apparent decision to start the raids on nearby riverbeds where readily exposed hard rock is easily available.

Huge extractors have been simply rolled into the area along with stone crushing machinery to break and prepare the rock for transportation to the nearby roadbuilding sites. The heavy weight plants have ripped out huge areas of once pristine river banks causing untold damage and destabilisation to these pivotal water flows.

There is no evidence of pre-planning to achieve any form of damage limitation to the environment say those who have provided shocking video evidence of this industrial scale assault on the landscape of the interior.  The activity is largely hidden from the public eye thanks to the 7 hours drive from the coastal belt.

A construction industry insider explained the more environmentally sound solution that would be normally required under a licenced operation: “All raw materials should be brought in from external sources.  Limbang quarry or even the merangang quarry are places from which stone could be accessed. Or a stone hilled site can be converted into a quarry“, they told Sarawak Report “But here river beds are quarried and causing huge floods in the lowlands with extensive mudflows” .

A local source who recently monitored the sites say many are at an “extreme gradient” from where “millions of tons” are being extracted. Several calls made to both the PWD and Environment Department to report the situation and highlight its urgency have gone unanswered says a frustrated whistleblower who originally alerted Sarawak Report.

Same GM Progresses to Next Project Phase!

Despite the clear construction problems relating to the first phase of the road, the Sarawak state government with the backing of the federal government awarded the second stretch of road construction to a separate company, Maltimur Aktif Unggul JV Sdn Bhd in March last year, this time covering a further projected 335km for an overall RM7.4 billion.

The next 77 km has also been sub-contracted for just over RM1 billion.  Observers note that the project manager in charge of the operation is the same individual who up till this point acted in the same role on behalf of the present contractors for Phase 1.

It leaves pressing concerns over whether the next phase of construction expects to continue these damaging raids on Sarawak’s delicate ecosystems that could store up dangerous consequences for the future.

Perhaps this time the Departments of Environments and Works will explain the situation along with the Kimlun Group who have presumably commissioned an obligatory EIA outlining what permissions they might have to destroy the regions natural water systems?

The local YB for the area is the party hopping Baru Bian, who once acted as a lawyer on behalf of the local communities who have felt the brunt of Samling’s extraction and now construction on their native lands.

It was he who was minister of Public Works when this access road to the region was launched as a proposal under the PH government and he has since shifted his allegiances first to the coup coalition that overthrew that government and now to the present GPS coalition that is responsible for overseeing this public funded construction project.

His constituents may seek better access to market towns.  However, flooding and major land erosion along with the destruction of life-giving river systems, owing to irresponsible and greedy construction methods, is not a price they ought to pay.

Sarawak Report has sent questions to the Project Director of this operation and to Kimlun Group and has copied in the YB Baru Bian. In the event of any response from them or notification from the authorities we will update this report.