The Bakun Hydroelectric Project (HEP) has been dogged by controversy ever since it was first proposed in the early 1980s. Apart from the question of its necessity, its financial viability and its environmental costs, questions were raised from the beginning about its potentially disastrous social impact. This especially derived from the fact that the project would flood an area the size of Singapore and some fifteen indigenous communities, which by 1997 involved some 1,640 families and nearly 10,000 people, would have to be resettled. (from introduction)
The Coalition of Concerned NGOs on Bakun (Gabungan), Malaysia. 1999. The resettlement of indigenous people affected by the Bakun Hydro-Electric Project, Sarawak, Malaysia. Prepared for Thematic Review I.2: Dams, indigenous people and vulnerable ethnic minorities. The World Commission on Dams.