KUCHING, Jan 14 — The communities in three river locations in Sarawak have approved the state government’s construction of cascading dams in their respective areas, involving Sungai Gaat, Sungai Tutoh and Sungai Belaga, Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Openg said.

He said the dam construction would be carried out by private companies, with the electric cable grid routes provided by Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB).

"I have received approval letters from the communities in these three rivers ... we have amended our laws so that the generation can be done by private entities, but the distribution will be handled by SEB,” he said after a Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu Supreme Council meeting here today.

The construction of cascading dams is a strategy employed by Sarawak to deal with the rising crocodile population and in addition to addressing the crocodile issue, the dams serve the purposes of generating electricity for local residents and conserving river biodiversity.

Meanwhile, Abang Johari said Sarawak had established a committee to detail suitable methods for the people in the state, especially in rural areas, to register with the Central Database Hub (Padu) system.

He said the committee is led by Deputy Minister of Economy Datuk Hanifah Hajar Taib and State Deputy Minister in the Premier’s Department (Law, MA63 and State-Federal Relations) Datuk Sharifah Hasidah Sayeed Aman Ghazali.

"We will conduct a seminar to introduce the Padu process and we must improve connectivity to facilitate the transmission of data to the system,” he said. — Bernama