Suhardi joined the opposition to the Sungai Karama hydropower project after holding dialogs with the customary communities of Kalumpang and Bonehau subdistricts recently, Mamuju district government spokesman Zain Iba said on Monday.
The customary communities in the two subdistricts opposed the hydropower project because it would require them to leave their present settlements and be relocated.
"The Mamuju district chief is also against the Chinese investor's plan to build the hydropower plant among other things because relocation of the Kelumpang and Bonehau people will also mean the dismantling of cultural sites in their regions," Zain said.
The district chief cannot but support the local communities' aspiration to remain in their present settlements, he added.
The Karama hydropower project would include the building of a 100-meter-high dam and require the vacation of inhabited land around the dam.
A local customary figure who is also a member of the West Sulawesi Provincial Legislative Council, Kalvin Kalambo, said the location of the planned hydropower project had been chosen erroneously and hurriedly.
"If the project is implemented according to present plans, so many local families who have lived there for generations will have to be moved and a number of cultural sites will be lost just like that," he said.
He said the project would force the relocation of at least 12 villages in Kalumpang and Bonehau subdistricts and that would just be something unthinkable. (HAJM/S012)
